Journey
by Scrawlers
Summary: Told in a series of vignettes, Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos embark on an Exsphere journey together. But while Exspheres are the initial reason, eventually they seem more like an excuse, and eventually it's less about the goal and more how they get there that matters. [Lloyd x Colette x Zelos]
1. Cycle One

**Disclaimer: **Tales of Symphonia and all related references (to be noted at the end) do not belong to me.

**Authors' Note: **This is a series of vignettes, written for a thirty day (though I only made it to twenty) writing challenge some time ago. This is an OT3 fic, meaning a three-way relationship between Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel, and Zelos Wilder, so if that sort of thing bothers you, I highly advise you to click the back button now.

Further notes will be made at the end, so as not to clog up the beginning.

* * *

Journey

"_And all along I believed I would find you. Time has brought your heart to me—I have loved you for a thousand years . . . I'll love you for a thousand more." _-Christina Perri, "A Thousand Years"

* * *

**Cycle (Year) One**

_Beginning -_

When the Journey of World Restoration finally drew to a close, Lloyd Irving decided that he was going to go on a _second_ journey to rid the world of Exspheres. There was no question about this, because really, everyone who knew him expected something like this from him. Going on a second journey was such a _Lloyd Irving_ thing to do that his announcement didn't even get a batted eyelash. It was so normal, so expected, so _Lloyd_.

It was also very _Lloyd _to want company—company, that is, besides Noishe, because while his beloved canine companion was always a constant in his life, there were only so many conversations one could have with their dog-like creature, especially when all of Noishe's participation consisted of growls, barks, and whines. Of course, just as it was expected that Lloyd would want to go on a journey like this, so, too, was it expected that Colette Brunel would want to go. Aside from the two being close friends since childhood, anyone with eyes could see what they felt for each other, even if the two people in question could not.

So, all of that was expected. What was _not _expected was for Zelos Wilder to volunteer himself for the trip as well.

"No." Lloyd's denial was flat and absolute, and Zelos' expression was one of exaggerated offense. Colette merely glanced between the two. "There's no reason for you to come. Don't you have stuff to do in Meltokio?"

"Handled it already." Zelos' answer was quick, and Lloyd looked disgruntled that he had a response prepared so quickly. "C'mon, bud, loosen up and let me come! I promise I won't get in the way."

"Get in the way of what?" Lloyd asked suspiciously, but before Zelos had a chance to answer, Colette spoke up instead, a little smile playing at her lips.

"I don't think it'll be too much trouble to bring Zelos along. Besides, it could be fun to have another person with us, don't you think?"

"That's my sweet little angel!" Zelos threw an arm around Colette's shoulders, drawing her into a one-armed hug, and Lloyd scowled even as Colette smiled. "We Chosen have to stick together, right?"

"Yup!"

"See, bud? Colette wants me to come, too." Zelos reached over and looped his other arm around Lloyd's shoulders, drawing Lloyd into a reluctant hug as well. "So, looks like we're all going on this journey together! Everyone agreed?"

Colette bobbed her head in a nod, and even though he was doing his best to keep his scowl up, Lloyd sighed and allowed his lips to twitch in what was almost—_almost_—a smile of his own.

"All right, all right. Fine, you can come."

So even though it was expected for Lloyd to go on such a journey, natural for Colette to go with him, and strange for Zelos Wilder to want to go, that was how the three of them started off together.

–

_Accusation -_

They'd met many people during the Journey of World Restoration already, but it would be crazy to assume that they'd met everyone there was to meet, and so Lloyd, Zelos, and Colette met many new people on the Journey of Exsphere Retrieval as well.

Of course, meeting new people meant meeting new women, as well.

"Oh, hi!" The innkeeper's daughter was petite and brunette, and she had dimples when she smiled. "You're the ones Father mentioned—the ones looking for remaining Exspheres, right? My name's Cindy, by the way."

"Well, hello, Cindy." Zelos reached out to take her hand, and Cindy's cheeks flushed as he flashed her a smile. "My name's Zelos Wilder. The pleasure is all—"

"Knock it off, Zelos," Lloyd said, his voice tinged with exasperation. Colette giggled behind her hands as Zelos gave Lloyd an affronted look.

"What? I was just saying hello!"

"For you, that's enough."

"Cindy, do you think you could show us where the Exspheres are kept?" Colette asked, choosing to ignore the bickering between her two male companions. Cindy looked bemused, but the blush was fading from her cheeks, and she nodded.

"Of course! Follow me." She turned and started out of the inn's front door, and Colette followed after. Zelos gave Lloyd a sulky look.

"Y'know, bud, you don't have to be so hateful." Lloyd rolled his eyes, and grabbed Zelos' arm to pull him along.

"Yeah, yeah. Just c'mon."

–

_Restless -_

Lloyd was always restless. Whether he was happy, content, or upset, he was always fiddling with something, or tapping his foot, or simply _moving_. He was even active when he slept, being the type to flail limbs and twist bed covers until they ended up in a heap on the floor. So it wasn't a surprise, then, that he took a walk when he found himself unable to sleep one night, walking outside to sit with Noishe and look up at the blanket of stars above.

What was surprising was the fact that Zelos joined him not too long after. When Lloyd looked to him questioningly, he simply said, "Can't sleep," and plopped down to sit beside Lloyd. Lloyd let the subject drop after that, because he thought that maybe this wasn't a subject that needed talking about—that maybe they already knew the reasons why, even if they didn't want to admit them. Some time after that, Colette wandered out of the inn to join them, too, and there the three—four, if one counted Noishe—sat, staring up at the stars in comfortable silence.

At some point, Lloyd took both Colette and Zelos' hands, though none of them could say exactly when that was.

–

_Snowflake -_

"Did we have to come to Flanoir?" Zelos complained. His voice was a whine, and Lloyd rolled his eyes, though Colette seemed not to notice as she twirled around in the snow, her arms spread wide. "C'mon, bud, who would want to stash Exspheres out here, huh? It's freezing. There's nothing out here but ice, snow, more ice, and more snow. And did I mention it's freezing? Because it is. It's balls to the walls cold out—"

"Will you give it a rest?" Lloyd demanded, though his expression was sympathetic. He knew full well the real reason why Zelos couldn't stop complaining about the snow. "Look, the faster we find the Exspheres, the sooner we can leave. Besides, if you keep talking so much, you'll just lose that much more body heat out of your mouth, right?"

Zelos gave Lloyd a painfully familiar look—a look of pity. "Bud, how many times _were_you dropped on your head as a baby, anyway?" Lloyd scowled.

"Get bent. I'll leave you out here to freeze."

"Wait, no! No, no, no! I'm sorry!" Zelos' exaggerated yowls of protest were punctuated as he threw himself on top of Lloyd, wrapping his arms around Lloyd's shoulders in a tight hug. Lloyd only just barely managed to keep his balance, preventing them both from toppling over into the soft powder at their feet. "Seriously, don't be mad. It was only a joke!"

"Joke or not, get off me." Zelos did, though only after a minute, and Lloyd turned to give him a light, half-hearted shove. Colette finally stopped twirling to look over at them, though she swayed a little on the spot from dizziness, and her cheeks—split with a wide smile—were flushed from cold and excitement.

"Are we ready to move on?"

"We are, yeah," Lloyd said, indicating himself and Zelos. He grinned. "Are you?" Colette giggled.

"Sure! I was just catching some snowflakes on my tongue." To demonstrate, she tilted her head back again and opened her mouth, catching a few of the falling flakes, which no doubt melted the second they met her tongue. She looked back to Lloyd and Zelos with a smile. "It's so much fun! We never did see much snow in Iselia, did we, Lloyd?"

"Nah, not too often. Though it was fun whenever we did." Lloyd tilted his own head back to mimic the action, and Zelos huffed a little, kicking at the snow by his feet.

"At least someone enjoyed it." Lloyd and Colette exchanged glances and grins, and as Colette approached Zelos, Lloyd crouched down to scoop some snow between his palms.

"The snow can be fun, Zelos!" Colette said, and he looked at her with a skeptical expression. "No, really, it can be! There are lots of things you can do with the snow."

"Like what?"

"Like build snowmen. Or igloos! Or even snow ang . . . well." Colette's smile faltered a little, but she perked right back up as he continued to watch her. "Maybe snow angels aren't the best, but you can go sledding! And you can even make snow-cones! Genis used to say that we shouldn't use actual snow to make snow-cones, but he always ate the ones Lloyd and I made anyway."

"Yeah?" Zelos asked, and Colette nodded brightly. "I see. I also know what you're planning to do with that snowball, bud, and I swear that if you throw it at me I'll—" His words were interrupted with a well-timed snowball to the side of his head, and as he reached up to brush the snow out of his long red locks, he turned to glare at Lloyd, who grinned. To his right, Colette was smiling just as deviously.

"You can also have snowball fights," she said cheerfully. "I think I forgot to list that one before, but it's still a really fun game you can play." Zelos grinned tightly, and bent down to construct a snowball of his own. Seeing that he was preparing to fight back, Lloyd and Colette both hastily began to scoop more snow together, and Zelos chuckled darkly.

"Oh, that is _it_. You are _both _going down, or I'm not the Great Zelos Wilder!"

–

_Haze -_

Colette didn't really remember the first time she met Zelos. Of course, it was to be expected; due to the effects of the angel transformation, she'd been little more than an automatic puppet, moving according to basic life functions, but doing no more than that. Still, she could recall little details, as though she'd viewed the scene from behind a shroud of some sort, with cotton balls stuffed deep into her ears.

She could remember bumping into him. That much was clear, because even in her transformed state, she could register things which could be a "threat" to her physical self. She could recall hearing screams, though no discernible words, and though she'd dismissed them at the time because they didn't seem to be life-threatening, she thought now that they must have come from the girls Zelos had surrounded himself with. She could remember that he said _something _to her, though she couldn't recall what, and she most vividly remembered the moment when her angel state registered him as a threat, and she threw him single-handedly across the plaza.

That was all Colette remembered of the first time she met Zelos. The rest blurred together, her angel mind deciding that it was useless, unimportant information. Perhaps that was one of the things she hated most about the angel transformation, because if she had to make a list of the most important moments in her life, meeting her fellow Chosen One would definitely be near the top.

–

Zelos didn't really remember the first time he met Colette. Like Colette, it was because of the angel transformation. Unlike Colette, it wasn't because of his own.

No, he'd been perfectly aware of his senses that day. He hadn't been drinking, nor was he under the influence of anything else. He was surrounded by a gaggle of noblewomen, but he wasn't paying that much attention to them—only enough to make sure that they didn't touch him without him initiating the contact first. No, instead he let them chatter and gossip and fawn, following him around the city until it was time for him to go to the palace to meet with the King, Princess, and Pope. It was an ordinary way to waste the day, and Zelos could remember tossing about the idea of bringing the group of girls to the palace with him, just to see the look of indignant rage on the Pope's and King's face. (He likely wouldn't have, because he was on decent terms with Hilda at the time and wouldn't have wanted to anger her unnecessarily, but he'd still considered it.)

So, he remembered everything up to that point quite clearly. He even remembered certain details of the moment clearly, and that was what drowned out everything else.

He could remember her wings—they were the first things he'd noticed. Of course, he'd seen them many times after the fact, but seeing them for the first time was something that was branded permanently into his memory. While he could vaguely recall one of the girls around him criticizing Colette for her out-of-season "angel costume," he could remember the feeling of absolute certainty that the shimmering wings were real. He could remember feeling his heart stuttering in his chest, cold sweat starting to break out on the back of his neck.

He could remember her voice—or lack thereof. Due to his carelessness and her inability to care, they'd collided pretty hard. Their shoulders hit with enough force to make even him stumble a bit, and Colette had been knocked back several paces. Yet she hadn't so much as gasped—nor did she say anything, even when he forced himself to address her. No, her mouth stayed shut in a firm line, no surprise registering.

And he remembered her eyes.

Her blank, soulless eyes. Those were the final things he noticed, when he forced himself to look into them, and when he looked at those eyes—staring blankly at him, as dead as a corpse's, or perhaps deader—he felt nausea roil unpleasantly in his stomach. He'd tried to brush it off, tried to flirt with her and act flippant, but the longer he looked at her, the more sick he felt. He had to keep his voice quiet and low to prevent himself from vomiting all over the cobblestone, and he made a vague excuse so that he could escape as quickly as possible. Despite their outcries, he found a way to ditch the girls shortly after, too, so that he could have time enough to empty the contents of his stomach in a back alley not too far from his manor.

He didn't really remember his first meeting with Colette too well, because all he could think about when he thought about that day was how she'd looked and acted—how she'd been, because of the angel transformation.

And how he would be the exact same way, were he forced to go through the Journey of Regeneration for Tethe'alla.

–

Lloyd didn't really remember his first days in Tethe'alla.

He didn't even know how many days they spent there, originally. He thought it was a week, or maybe a week and a half, but either way, the days passed by in a blur. Everything from the Tower of Salvation to the moment when Colette regained her soul on top of the Fooji Mountains ran together, and no matter how many nights he sat awake, trying to force them into some form of coherent sense, he couldn't. He gave up after the first couple failed attempts, anyway, because it made his head hurt, and there was no use dwelling on the past, regardless.

Even so, he didn't remember them. He simply hadn't paid attention to much of anything, for he was in too much of a rush to try and find a way to save Colette. He didn't really remember his conversation with Yuan in the Renegades' base, he didn't remember his first trip through the rip in space-time that let the Rheairds slip through; he didn't even really pay attention the first time they met Zelos. Genis teased him about not being able to understand simple concepts because he kept having to ask who their enemies were, but that was mostly because every time someone told him, Lloyd felt his attention wandering back to Colette, and her blank eyes, and her vacant expression.

Whenever he slept, it haunted his nightmares.

So he didn't remember his first days in Tethe'alla—he let everything pass him by in a whirlwind, only coming back to focus when it was legitimately important. What he _did _remember was the moment Colette regained her soul, when she smiled brightly for the first time in what felt like centuries. He remembered when she turned to Zelos, and when Zelos finally looked her properly in the eye—and he remembered being surprised at his own realization, being shocked that it was the first time Zelos properly looked at her, but he knew it was true nonetheless. And he remembered feeling a euphoric swoop in his stomach as Zelos claimed that they, as Chosen, would need to stick together, and Colette agreed, because that deal made him feel ecstatic even if he didn't know why at the time.

Now he knew why—or at least, he thought he did—but he still didn't know precisely what it meant.

–

_Flame -_

"Booyah! Campfire is made!" Zelos dusted his hands off, as though casting the simple fire spell had been a feat of great excellence, and he dropped down onto the blanket they had spread out on the grass. Colette and Lloyd were in charge of making dinner that night, and as they debated over various chili ingredients (Colette wanted to add raspberries, and Lloyd wasn't so sure that was a good idea), Lloyd looked up.

"Well, at least you're useful for something." Zelos had laid back on the blanket, but now he propped himself up on his elbows, and gave Lloyd a flat look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lloyd shrugged.

"You're not helping with dinner, are you?"

"Are you telling me you and Colette can't handle chili?"

"We can handle it!" Colette cheerfully reached over to pick up a banana, and held it up for Lloyd's inspection. "Lloyd, you like bananas, right? We could add bananas to the chili."

"Bananas are good," Lloyd agreed, though he was looking doubtfully at the fruit she held in her hands. "I'm just not sure they're good for chili. Why don't we just go with beef?"

"We're going to use beef, but we need something else in it, too. How about strawberries?"

"Colette, I really don't think that fruit works with this kind of—"

"But it does! Not if you add a lot, but just a little bit can spice it up!"

"If you're talking about chili and spices," Zelos said, for at this point he'd crawled over to where they were sitting, ingredients spread out around them to be tossed into the cooking pot, "then you need to go all the way." Picking up the small container of ground up chili peppers they had, Zelos turned it upside over the pot, adding the entire thing in. Colette and Lloyd's eyes widened in turn, and Lloyd turned to smack Zelos on the arm. Zelos pouted. "Bud! What was that for?"

"What was that for? What do you think? Do you even know how hot that chili is going to be now?!" Zelos raised an eyebrow in the face of Lloyd's anger.

"Do you?" Lloyd made a face, as if struggling to find the words, before he finally settled on:

"Really, really hot!" Zelos snorted.

"It's not chili if it's not really, really hot. Deal with it, bud."

"It's okay, Lloyd. Maybe tonight's chili can be an adventure." To accentuate her words, Colette picked up the container of raspberries, and dumped them in as well. Lloyd sighed, even as Colette beamed. "There! We have the raspberries, so that should be it for the fruit. Zelos can have the banana." She dropped the unpeeled banana into Zelos' lap, and he gave it an odd look as he picked it up.

"Why do I get the banana?"

"Bananas are good," Colette said, echoing Lloyd's words from earlier. She added, "The Professor always said they were a good source of potassium." Zelos considered to look at the banana for a moment before a mischievous smirk curled on his lips.

"You know what, my sweet little angel? You're right. Bananas _are _good. And while you two throw that chili on the fire, I think I'm going to use our handy-dandy bananas to make us some drinks."

–

_Formal –_

Zelos, having grown up in the heart of noble society in Meltokio, knew how to dance. It was simply a part of that world, practically a requirement; if you were going to be a noble, second in power only to the Royal Family, you needed to know how to handle yourself on the dance floor. Beyond that, Zelos was simply born with a natural grace. His movements were smooth and fluid, and so dancing wasn't difficult for him at all.

The opposite could be said for Lloyd and Colette.

Neither of them were nobility. Despite being Sylvarant's Chosen, Colette grew up in a small village, in a family with modest income. Lloyd, on the other hand, was raised by a dwarf in a forest, and one didn't get much farther away from nobility and that. As for having grace, well, Colette's clumsiness was legendary, and Lloyd wasn't that much more coordinated. In short, neither of them knew how to dance, though there were times in childhood when Lloyd, Colette, and Genis would jump up and down in actions that they _thought _resembled dancing, but more closely resembled a trio of monkeys after ingesting a large amount of hallucinogens.

So, neither of them knew how to dance, and ordinarily, it never came up. But one night, while staying in Zelos' mansion in Meltokio, Zelos brought out a couple bottles of fancy wine (never mind the fact that both Lloyd and Colette were still underage; according to Zelos, legal age was never a problem in Meltokio high society), turned on some sort of magitek record player that would make Raine explode with excitement if she were present, and proclaimed that they were going to have themselves a little dance party. Y'know, to celebrate some success in their Exsphere journey.

Well, Lloyd was never one to say no to a party, and neither was Colette, but the fact that neither of them could dance quickly became apparent.

"I am dancing!" Lloyd exclaimed indignantly, when Zelos pointed out that people were supposed to _dance _to music, rather than have a seizure to it. Zelos once again gave Lloyd a look of pity, while Colette sported a look of confusion, because in her opinion Lloyd was a pretty decent dancer.

"Jeez, sometimes I forget about just how far out in the boonies you really come from, bud." Lloyd's look of offense only grew, and Zelos held up his hands. "Hey now, don't get mad. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just saying, you have absolutely no concept of proper dancing."

"Dancing is dancing. Colette and I dance just fine." Lloyd turned to Colette, who nodded with a small smile, but Zelos shook his head.

"No. No. I refuse to bear witness to this Rheaird-wreck any longer. You two," he pointed at both of them, "are going to learn how to dance. Right here, right now."

And learn they did.

Zelos taught Colette first, figuring that Lloyd could learn by observing the pair of them. With one arm around Colette's waist and the other holding her hand parallel to his shoulder, he swept her around the living room, twirling her effortlessly. It helped that she was so light, he knew, and also that he had added strength, but dancing with her truly felt like dancing with air. Of course, her innate clumsiness ruined the illusion a little, and Zelos was sure that he was going to have bruises on his feet from how many times she stepped on them, but she still caught on quickly enough. After all, air-headed though she may be at times, Colette was far from a slow learner.

Lloyd, on the other hand . . .

If he was going to have bruises from Colette stepping on his feet, Zelos thought his feet might break from how Lloyd stomped on them—accidentally, of course, but that didn't make it hurt less. Naturally, Zelos had to teach Lloyd the _following _steps, though he justified it by saying that Lloyd could just mimic what Zelos was doing, in order to placate him a little more. Still, Lloyd wasn't nearly as quick to catch onto dancing as Colette was, and eventually, Zelos called for a break so that they could have more wine, figuring that the wine might help improve the lessons.

Predictably, it didn't make any of them any more coordinated, but it did make Zelos' feet hurt less, and made the night a hell of a lot more fun.

–

_Companion –_

"Y'know, bud, I've noticed something. Traveling with you? It involves a hell of a lot of running!"

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos found themselves being chased by a pack of bloodthirsty, savage creatures that wanted to kill them.

"Yeah, well, that's what you get what you decide to be my companion! It's been that way forever! Don't act like this is something new, Zelos!"

This time, it was a pack that consisted of creatures that were commonly known as eggbears (or, as Lloyd dubbed them, "manbearpigs"). They hadn't known that eggbears lived in the Gaoracchia Forest, or that they lived in packs, or that they weren't too happy with people looking through their dens to try and find Exspheres, but things like this were things that often happened around Lloyd Irving. He was something of a walking trouble magnet.

"Wait, you consider me your companion?"

"Of course! What the hell did you think you were?"

"I . . . don't actually have an answer to that."

"You're dumb, Zelos."

"Oh, look at the pot calling the kettle black."

"What do pots and kettles have to do with—"

"You guys!" Colette had only managed not to trip while running thanks to Zelos and Lloyd each taking one one of her hands to pull her along, but she pulled one of her hands free from Zelos' grip to point up ahead. "There's a cave! We could use that for safety!"

"Or they could corner us and chow down," Zelos pointed out, but Lloyd shook his head.

"No time, let's go!" Moving so that he could place himself in-between Colette and Zelos, Lloyd grabbed the hand that Colette had released so that he could pull both of his companions to the safety and shelter of the cave, all but throwing them inside ahead of himself.

While the eggbears seemed momentarily distracted, the distraction didn't last long; they doubled back to the cave, as Zelos had predicted, no doubt preparing to use the shallow cave as a makeshift bowl to devour them. Lloyd drew both of his swords, and Zelos unhooked his sword and shield from his waist, but even as both of them prepared to do battle, light erupted from behind them.

_"Sacred powers, cast your purifying light upon these corrupt souls—JUDGMENT!"_

Holy beams of light rained down from above the monsters, and they weren't simply killed—they were _obliterated_, blasted into a mist of bone matter and blood so fine that it could hardly be seen. All that remained of them were scorched craters on the ground, and both Lloyd and Zelos turned to look at Colette with an expression of shock as she put her angel wings away.

"I just needed time to cast," she said. "The time it took for them to realize we were in the cave was just enough."

Lloyd and Zelos continued to stare at her for a moment before Lloyd dropped his swords, and scooped her into a hug big enough to lift her up off the ground. The minute he set her back on her feet, Zelos pulled her over and kissed the top of her head.

"I _love _you!" he said, and though they were just words, he did mean them, in a way. Colette beamed at him.

"I know."

–

_Move –_

Sometimes, they wanted to sleep in an inn. Sometimes, there weren't enough rooms at the inn for them to all have their own. And sometimes, there weren't even enough beds.

That was what happened that night. On the plus side, they at least managed to get a full size bed instead of a twin, but it was still somewhat crowded and cramped. After some debate, Zelos lay in the middle, figuring that if Lloyd was going to flail around like a beached drunken whale in his sleep, he might as well not kick Colette while he was at it. Given that Zelos voiced this thought aloud, he got a _purposeful _kick from Lloyd in his shin, and he'd been about to shove Lloyd off the bed altogether when Colette reminded them that they shouldn't beat each other up, because the monsters and bandits did that enough already.

The true concern in her voice was enough to get them to agree, but it didn't make the situation any more comfortable.

There simply wasn't enough _space_. To her credit, Colette was small, so she didn't take up much, but Zelos was _long_. His feet dangled off the edge of the bed a little bit, and he couldn't seem to put his arms anywhere that didn't nudge either Lloyd or Colette. Lloyd, too, wasn't small by any means, and every time he fidgeted he ended up elbowing Zelos, or kicking him, or smacking his palm into Zelos' face.

"For the last time, bud, not the face!"

"I'm not doing it on purpose!" Lloyd hissed back, for the walls of the inn were rather thin. "I'm just trying to get comfortable!"

"Could ya do it without giving me bruises? I'm supposed to be getting beauty sleep, and you're ruining my gorgeous skin."

"Well, ex_cu_se me, oh Great Chosen—"

"You guys." Colette pushed herself up onto one arm to look at them, her blonde hair falling across her face, and they both turned to look somewhat guiltily at her, though it was a bit hard to see her in the darkness. Her voice was quiet, and she didn't sound angry, though they still knew they were keeping her awake. "I have an idea."

"For what?" Lloyd asked. Colette paused, as if considering his question, but then laughed quietly.

"For how to sleep better. Since you're having trouble getting comfortable, and since Zelos isn't getting his beauty sleep, I have an idea on how to fix it." Without further preamble, she reached over to grab Lloyd's arm, tugging it toward her so that his arm was draped across Zelos' chest. That completed, she grabbed Zelos' arm—the one nearest Lloyd, obviously—and tossed it over so that it was wrapped around Lloyd in a weak embrace. She then snuggled against Zelos, throwing her arm across his chest so that she could rest her hand against Lloyd, and—seeing where she was going with this—Zelos shifted his other arm so that it was wrapped around her, too. "See?" she said, and the question was punctuated with a yawn. "It's like a puzzle."

"I'm . . . not sure about this, Colette," Zelos said, though he couldn't say why he wasn't sure with it. Lloyd was quiet for a minute before he shifted again, but this seemed less impatient and uncomfortable, and more cozy.

"I dunno, I think it's a good idea. This way we're not fighting for space." Lloyd's breath was hot against Zelos' skin, and Zelos could smell the sweet scent of Colette's hair strongly. "Thanks, Colette. And g'night—both of you."

"Good night, Lloyd." Colette sounded happy as could be, and her arm tightened a little around Zelos. "Good night, Zelos. Sweet dreams." Zelos relaxed, despite himself, and shut his eyes.

"Yeah," he managed. "Sweet dreams."


	2. Cycle Two (Part One)

**Cycle Two (part one)**

_Silver –_

Even after Vharley's corrupt side business and the extensive Journey of World Restoration, the Toize Valley Mine was still full to the brim with Exspheres. While it was true that these Exspheres didn't yet have human souls sucked into them, Lloyd felt that it was best to dispose of them regardless, to prevent more people from falling victim due to temptation.

It was for this reason that, despite how little Zelos wanted to go on an excavation dig, the three of them found themselves deep within the Toize Valley Mine, digging for Exspheres. The Lezareno Corporation owned the mine, of course, and Regal had offered to send help, but Lloyd had refused. According to him, Zelos and Colette were all the help he needed. Zelos, naturally, had made a remark about how _they _could use extra help, even if _he _couldn't, but Colette said that she would help Zelos all he wanted, and Zelos let the subject drop after that.

Besides, they were doing pretty well for themselves, even if the dirt would never come out of Zelos' pants again.

"Hey, you guys, I don't think there ar—ack!" As she spoke, Colette tripped, her body weight falling against a bunch of loose rock in the wall. Lloyd and Zelos hurried over, both of them reaching down to grasp one of her hands and pull her up, yet although she was covered in dirt and loose rock, she didn't seem to be harmed.

"You need to be more careful, Colette," Lloyd said, sighing. Colette giggled, an embarrassed blush lighting her cheeks. "It's dangerous down here. You could get hurt!"

"I'll be all right, Lloyd," she said, and she brushed some of the dirt off her shirt as Lloyd picked gravel out of her hair. "I was just going to say, I don't think there are any Exspheres over here."

"You may be right about that, my sweet little angel," Zelos said, but the distraction in his voice caused both Lloyd and Colette to look over, "but I wouldn't discount this part of the mine just yet."

What Zelos was staring at—and what caused both Lloyd and Colette's eyes to widen in shock—was a large cache of silver nuggets, previously hidden by the rock wall Colette had tripped into.

"Whoa, what is that?" Lloyd moved closer, crouching down so that he could prod it with his finger. Not all of the nuggets were pure, some of them containing other metals, but they were just pure enough to make Lloyd's eyes the size of Derris-Kharlan. "Is that . . . silver?"

"Looks like it." Zelos crouched down as well, and shook his head in disbelief. "This is insane. You almost never find it in nuggets like this—and definitely not this much of it. You know how much this is worth? A couple million gald, easy."

Colette finally came to crouch down between them, and she looked over at Zelos with a worried frown. "Is it bad that I broke the wall to find it? I didn't mean to! I just tripped and—oh, I'm sorry!"

"Don't apologize, angel. There's nothing to be sorry for." Zelos huffed a laugh, and reached over to clap her on the back. "This is the find of a lifetime, and you discovered it by tripping. It's not bad—it's hilarious."

"It's Colette," Lloyd said, and he was grinning, too. "So, what should we do with it? Colette found it, right? So it's hers."

"Well, technically, this is all Lezareno's property, since they own the mine. I guess that would technically make it Regal's."

"But Colette's the one who found it! She should get to keep it."

"Like you kept the Sorcerer's Ring, and your Rheaird?"

"I'm _borrowing _those, and you kept your Rheaird, too—"

"I don't want to keep it." Colette didn't raise her voice, but she still managed to catch their attention, causing both of them to look over at her. "I don't really need millions of gald, you know? And I know Grandmother wouldn't want it. She always said that we should live modestly, in accordance with the rules of the Church of Martel."

"The Church of Martel has a different set of rules in Sylvarant than Tethe'alla, then," Zelos said, and he laughed a little, in a humorless way. "'Modest' is the last word I'd use to describe the church's stance on money."

"Maybe," Colette agreed, "but I know Grandmother wouldn't want that much money. So, I really don't need to keep it."

"But Colette, you're the one who found it!" Lloyd looked disappointed, almost like a child whose parent turned down the chance to own an ice cream stand, and his bottom lip even protruded in a little pout. "There's gotta be _something _you'd like to do with it." Colette thought on it for a moment, and then nodded with a little smile.

"Yeah. I think I'd like to start a charity service with it." Before Lloyd or Zelos could interrupt, she continued. "A lot of families in Sylvarant are still underprivileged due to the mana shortage from before. Even though mana is equal between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla now, it's going to take a long time to fill that gap, right? And there are families who are suffering in Tethe'alla, too. I think it'd be really nice to use the money to fund a charity, to give food, clothing, and medicine to those who need it. Oh!" Colette clapped her hands together. "We could open shelters, too! That way, if anyone doesn't have a house for whatever reason, they can have somewhere to stay. I'm sure Regal would like this idea, too, so he shouldn't mind if we use the silver for that, right?"

Lloyd and Zelos both stared at her for a moment before Lloyd grinned, and Zelos looked away with a crooked smile.

"I think that's a great idea, Colette," Lloyd said, and he reached over to give her a light, playful push. "You're always putting others before yourself." She shook her head.

"That's not true. Starting this charity service is actually kind of selfish, since it makes me happy, too. So you shouldn't say that I'm putting others before myself, because this also helps me . . ."

"Yeah, but you're still doing something not many people would do with this kind of cash, which makes you pretty selfless, in my book." Zelos took Colette's hand in his own before he stood up, pulling her up along with him. "C'mon. Let's go talk to our man Regal. He should be able to help us out with the excavation and whatnot, so that we can get the ball rolling on this charity movement sooner rather than later."

"You want to help?" Coming from almost anyone else, Zelos might have been offended, but Colette asked with enough genuine happiness to alleviate it. He shrugged, and gave her that same crooked smile.

"What can I say? Even the Great Zelos Wilder can be swayed by causes like this. Or maybe you guys just have that effect on me."

"It's a good effect," Lloyd said, and as he stood up, he lightly pushed Zelos just as he had to Colette earlier. Zelos glanced over to see Lloyd sporting a goofy grin. "Keep it up."

"Yeah, yeah." Zelos rolled his eyes, but it was hard to feel insulted or offended in situations like these. Instead, as Colette began chatting about all the plans she had for a charity organization, and as Lloyd pitched a few weird ideas into the mix, all Zelos could feel was a strange kind of happiness.

–

_Prepared -_

Colette was never the one to plan. Even when it came to the Journey of Regeneration, which had been _her _journey and something she should have prepared for years in advance, she always left the plans up to someone else. It wasn't because she wasn't clever, or because she was lazy, but it was simply because planning wasn't in her nature. Colette had grown up knowing that she would die one day (or thinking that she would, anyway, given how the Journey of Regeneration was supposed to end), and so she'd opted instead to live each day as it came by. It was better not to think about the future, when it would be staring her in the face soon enough anyway; it was better to simply enjoy the present. And now, even though the Journey of World Restoration was over and she had an unknown number of years ahead of her, it was a habit that was hard to shake.

Lloyd, too, was not one to come up with a plan. Lloyd was more the type to come up with laundry lists: first they would get to wherever they were going, then they would ascertain their goal, and then they would get it. The finer details of the plan never graced his mind, and if someone suggested that he should think about them, Lloyd wouldn't. It took too much time, and a sort of finesse that simply wasn't in Lloyd's system. He wasn't a strategist, really; he was the more the type to just make it up as he went along.

So that left Zelos, and – fortunately for them – he _was _the type to strategize and plan. He wasn't the type to reveal his plan, or to share it with the other two. In fact, Zelos was more the type to obfuscate stupidity and pretend that he _didn't _have a plan, only revealing his cards (or part of his cards) at the last minute. Having grown up among politicians and nobles, Zelos knew the ins and outs of the manipulation game, and—having once played three opposing sides simultaneously—he more than knew how to wrangle loyalties and play the game to the advantage of himself and his companions.

So when the three of them managed to stumble upon a tiny hidden village in the wilds of Sylvarant, while Colette was lost for words that this village that none of them knew about existed and Lloyd tried to come up with an excuse for why they were there, Zelos merely stepped forward and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a leather ID holder. He flashed it up to the village elder too quickly to be truly seen, but his charming smile distracted those present from inquiring about it further.

"Sorry for troubling you, but we're with the Sylvaranti Restoration Committee," he said smoothly. "We were scouting in the area to see if there was anyone out here who could use any supplies—you know, food, clothing, things of that nature. Depending on the size of your community and the local terrain, we'd love to bring some tools and seeds on our next visit, to help your community grow."

"Ah—our apologies. We merely thought . . ." The village chief shook his head. "Never mind. Right this way, please." He turned to lead them further into the village, and as the three hung back a bit, both Lloyd and Colette looked to Zelos with wide eyes.

"Zelos, that was amazing!"

"Yeah, but how'd you do it?" Lloyd asked, and he glanced to Zelos' back pocket, where the false ID was hidden away. "How'd you have an ID for the Sylvaranti . . . whatever? I didn't even know that was a thing."

"It's not," Zelos said, careful to keep his voice low enough so that none of the villagers could overhear. "But you know, it never hurts to have an excuse ready, bud. Besides, with our sweet little angel's charity organization, it shouldn't be too hard to get some tools to these people, should it?"

"Right!" Colette clapped her hands together, beaming. "That way it's not a total lie, so it's okay, right?" Lloyd frowned a little at the reminder that it was a lie.

"I guess . . . but Dwarven Vow Number Eleven—"

"C'mon, bud. We're going to help them out later. We're really not lying." Zelos slung an arm around Lloyd's shoulders, and made a circular gesture with his other hand. "It's more like . . . circumnavigating the truth."

"Yeah!" Colette agreed. "We can even get costumes later to go along with it." How that helped the deception appear any less dishonest remained to be seen, but Lloyd grinned anyway.

"When you put it that way . . . yeah. Let's go for it!"

–

_Knowledge -_

Colette knew a lot of things.

She knew, for instance, that many people thought of her as being ditzy, spacey, or perhaps even dumb. That wasn't the case at all, of course. The truth of the matter was, Colette had dreamed of escaping her life as a Chosen ever since she was a little girl, but she knew that she could never truly run away from it. Dreaming up impossible worlds was the only way she could get even a temporary reprieve, and so she lost herself in her dream worlds as often as she could. It simply bled over into "real life" and ordinary conversations, prompting her to take a sensible conversation and toss it out of the window, because that was fun to her. It was fun to think of impossible things, and even more fun to see the reactions of others. She understood perfectly well what the people around her were talking about; it was just more fun to sometimes pretend to not get it, in favor of the zany and unorthodox.

Colette also knew that she, Lloyd, and Zelos had been searching for Exspheres for a full cycle of the seasons—halfway through their fifth season together, actually. They took breaks every now and then, so that Lloyd could check in with Dirk and Colette with her grandmother and father, and so that Zelos could check the status of things in Meltokio. They also met with their friends regularly, whenever they got the chance, because it wasn't as if they wanted to isolate themselves completely from others. Despite the small breaks, though, they kept traveling, and sometimes it seemed like their travels would never end, despite exasperated remarks from Genis and Sheena, and comments about time wasting from Raine. Sometimes, in fact, Colette _wished _that their travels would never end, and sometimes she thought—no, she knew—that Lloyd and Zelos felt the same way.

Colette knew a lot about Lloyd. It was to be expected, given that they'd known each other for most of their lives, but Colette knew more about Lloyd than he or anyone else thought she did. She knew, for instance, that the reason that he was "book dumb" wasn't that he was unintelligent, but rather because he had an aversion to learning things he couldn't put to practical use—something unintentionally taught to him by his practical adopted father, Dirk. She knew that his intelligence was actually a sensitive topic for him, despite how he tried to hide it, and she knew that he'd tried to study academic subjects for awhile—but that it wasn't so much to stave off teasing as it was to impress his biological father, Kratos. Colette knew that Lloyd was accepting of everyone, so long as the person in question didn't intentionally try to hurt others, and she also knew that he didn't think of people in terms of their sex, age, size, race, or anything like that. Lloyd merely thought of people as people, as who they were rather than what, and she knew that such a mindset influenced how Lloyd formed relationships with the people around them. More than anything, Colette knew even before she left Iselia on the Journey of Regeneration that Lloyd was her Special Someone, and that Lloyd thought of her as his Special Someone, too. Of course, she also knew that the subject of Special Someones was a fluid one, and could be altered at any time, but that in this case, Lloyd still considered her to be his Special Someone, and she still felt the same way about him.

Colette also knew a lot about Zelos—and perhaps, in some ways, she knew more about Zelos than she did about Lloyd, because knowing Zelos was a lot like knowing herself. She knew, for instance, that many of Zelos' smiles were fake—and that, once upon a time when they first met, _all _of the smiles he showed were fake. She was so well-versed in fake smiles that she could tell instantly if one she saw was fake, but especially if Zelos was the one sporting it. After all, it was like looking in a mirror.

But it went deeper than that—deeper than his fake smiles, fake laughs, fake little lies. Colette knew, for instance, that Zelos didn't like to be touched. He was a tactile person, to be sure, but _only _if he was the one initiating contact. If someone else touched him first, he would move away and try to flip the situation so that he was the one in control. She knew that, despite his self-announced vanity, Zelos hated looking in the mirror, and that was the reason why the Wilder Estate had hardly any mirrors to be found. She knew that Zelos wasn't really into fashion, as he claimed, and only cared about it insofar as making sure that his outfits would be deemed offensive by the Church of Martel and the Royal Family—except for Hilda, whom Colette knew Zelos held a sort of affection, even if the two weren't getting along at any given time. She knew that despite his constant flirtations with women, there were only two women that Zelos held any true romantic affection for, one of them being Sheena. And she knew, even if Zelos himself didn't, that Zelos was the type to love someone, _really _love someone, regardless of their sex, and that even if someone was the most attractive being on the face of the planet, Zelos wouldn't touch them if he couldn't muster up even the tiniest shard of trust.

So, Colette knew Lloyd and Zelos, perhaps better than they knew themselves and certainly better than they thought she did. But what she knew more than anything else, more than the little details that made up who they were, was that the relationship between the three of them had changed over the past year—for the better, if not for the more complicated.

She and Lloyd had always been Special Someones. That fact was clear to her, even if the two of them never acknowledged it beyond a held hand or cryptic word. They didn't need to acknowledge it, really, because it was readily apparent to anyone who had eyes, and—on a deeper, more emotional level—the two of them knew it without it needing to be said. They knew it the moment they touched hands in the Tower of Salvation, and Lloyd could hear her thoughts. For him to hear her like that, it meant that Colette held him in the highest esteem. For him to hear her, it meant that Lloyd's feelings were on the same level.

So they were Special Someones, and Colette knew this, regardless of anything else. But that bond that she shared with Lloyd was—by this point—also shared with Zelos.

Colette and Zelos had always had a unique bond that couldn't be replicated by others, given to them by their shared status as the Chosen. Only they could understand each other's plights, and in the darkness of a quiet campsite, when everyone else was sleeping, they were the only two who could hold whispered conversations about their feelings, dreams, and fears. Colette knew that she was the first person Zelos had ever been able to open up to about it, and likewise, she could tell Zelos things that she couldn't tell Lloyd, because Lloyd lacked the background to be able to truly understand. During the Journey of Restoration, Colette and Zelos had grown close—perhaps without anyone noticing—and this Exsphere journey had only solidified that relationship.

The same could be said between Lloyd and Zelos. Oh, true, the two of them bickered. They squabbled and traded jibes back and forth. But Zelos trusted Lloyd unequivocally. Colette sometimes thought that Lloyd could tell Zelos to walk calmly off the top of Mt. Fooji, and Zelos would do it, even if he pretended to have problems with it as he did so. Lloyd had saved Zelos, in the very same way that he'd saved Colette, and—just as Colette had, just as so many others had—Zelos had fallen in love with him. And Lloyd? Lloyd, Lloyd, fantastic Lloyd—he loved Zelos, too. He feigned exasperation and annoyance, but in truth, Colette could see that Lloyd loved Zelos just as much as he loved her. It didn't matter that Zelos was a man—to Lloyd, he was Zelos. Just Zelos. And he'd never be anything but.

Lloyd and Zelos didn't pick up on any of this, she knew. Lloyd probably knew on a deeper, emotional level that wasn't acknowledged by his conscious mind, in the same way that his love for Colette was never readily acknowledged, either. And Zelos—Zelos probably hadn't allowed himself to acknowledge it yet, in part because of his kinda-sorta-on-and-off relationship he had with Sheena, and because he'd likely never felt _that way _about another man before. But Colette knew that she was in love with both Lloyd and Zelos. And she knew—she didn't think, but she _knew_—that Lloyd was in love with both herself and Zelos, and that Zelos was in love with both herself and Lloyd. The three of them had fallen in love with each other over the course of their Exsphere journey, even if she was the only one who could see it.

And that was all right. Despite what some might think in her place, and despite what some might feel, Colette knew that it was _all right_. They were happy now, as they were, and while she didn't _know _that the happiness would last, she hoped it would. She would continue to wait, and watch, and see where things led. She didn't know where they would end up . . . but she hoped that they would end up just as happy in the future as they were right now.

–

_Denial -_

Zelos Wilder was a ladies man.

It was known the world over. Sometimes it was hard to believe that there was a female he hadn't flirted with, whether jokingly or seriously, and if you tried to make a bet with Zelos that there was any female he wouldn't hit on, it was a bet that you were sure to lose. Zelos didn't sleep around as much as his reputation would have you believe—there were many women, noblewomen especially, who made up stories of sleeping with him in order to try to get attention—but he still made it known that he appreciated the female form in more ways than one. It was one of the reasons his relationship (whatever it was) with Sheena was so rocky.

So, there was no denying that. What was deniable was . . .

Well, Zelos wasn't sure. He hadn't been sure for awhile, but this night was one of the first nights that he was actually letting himself think about it—_it _being how he felt about his two companions.

Lloyd Irving and Colette Brunel.

For the longest time, he convinced himself that there was nothing to think about. The first two seasons that they were together, the thought didn't even cross his mind. It wasn't that he didn't think about them—it was impossible not to, given that they were traveling together—but he didn't think of them in _that way_. And then, when he started to think of them in _that way_, he stopped. It was difficult to switch his brain off—despite what others said or joked about or thought, Zelos had above average intelligence and a brain that could run multiple thought processes at once—but he tried his best anyway. They were _Lloyd _and _Colette_; it almost felt _wrong _to think of them in that way, and besides, he had his whatever-it-was with Sheena. The only way to build it past a maybe-kinda-sorta relationship and into a solid one would be to stop messing around and be faithful. He couldn't mess that up.

Yet still . . .

It became increasingly difficult to not think about it, especially as the weeks passed. Colette would be spinning around the open plain as they walked, and he'd notice how the sunlight caught her golden hair just right—or else she'd lean toward him as they sat around a campfire, her eyes big and bright and _so blue_, and he'd find himself unable to look away. Colette had always been _different _from other girls, to him. Not different in the same way Sheena was different, in the sense that he'd always pictured her as the one girl he could have an actual relationship with, if any, but just . . . different. She was a Chosen, like him. She could understand him where others couldn't. While Zelos was loathe to ever open himself up to others, Colette had been the first one that he could actually discuss being a Chosen with. In a way, she was the very first person he ever met that he could open himself up to. To this day, he felt comfortable with her, like he could truly breathe easily around her. It was fittingly cheesy, he supposed, that she almost felt like his other half; she _was _the other Chosen, from Sylvarant rather than Tethe'alla. It fit that they were, to use one of Yuan's clichés, like two halves of the same coin.

So, maybe it wasn't so wrong to think about having _that type _of relationship with Colette, even if she had and Lloyd had been stuck together since the day Zelos had met them. As he lay awake at their campsite now, staring up at the sky splattered with stars, Zelos let himself actively consider that possibility. He let himself think back to when he twirled her around his living room, let him imagine how she'd fallen into his lap that very same night when she'd had one too many glasses of wine. He remembered how light she felt in his arms, and thought about how her lips curled when she smiled just right. He imagined—and it was very easy to imagine—how soft her lips would probably feel against his own.

But then there was Lloyd.

Lloyd was harder to think about. Not just because Zelos would never want to break Lloyd's heart by making a move on Colette—never in ten billion years—but because as easy as it was for Zelos to imagine himself kissing Colette whenever he allowed himself to think about it, it was just as easy for him to imagine kissing—

No. No. _No. _

He was a ladies man, damn it! A ladies man! Zelos turned away from the night sky, as though it was the stars' fault that he'd imagined such a thing, but this proved to be fruitless, given that turning on his side just allowed him to catch a view of Lloyd, instead. Allowing himself a barely audible, disgruntled huff, Zelos flopped back over onto his back. Noishe, their appointed guard "dog," looked over at the sound, but Zelos ignored him. Noishe was Lloyd's dog, anyway.

_Lloyd_. Argh.

Zelos' feelings toward Lloyd were different than the feelings he'd had for just about any other person, save perhaps Colette. That much Zelos could admit to himself, because there was no sense in denying it. Who else had Zelos been able to talk to about his parents' deaths? Who else was Zelos able to fully and completely trust? Lloyd was the first person Zelos ever met that treated him as a _person_, rather than the _Chosen_, and it was a feeling that was so strange and wonderful that at first, Zelos hadn't recognized it for what it was. He'd even rejected it, going so far as to try to actively hate Lloyd, only to realize soon after that it was impossible. There was absolutely no way in any world that Zelos Wilder could ever hate Lloyd Irving. It was just as impossible as dying by trying to hold his breath.

So, he didn't hate Lloyd. He liked him quite a lot, actually. More than just about any other person. And when he thought about it like that, when he thought about how it made him feel when Lloyd smiled at him, or how his insides seized him and then practically exploded with joy when Lloyd said that he trusted him, then—

No, no, but this wasn't supposed to happen! It wasn't supposed to be like this! Zelos pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, trying hard not to scream out of fear of waking the others. Lloyd was a _guy_. Zelos wasn't interested in guys. It was what he'd always said! It was what he'd always believed! After all, he'd never had an interest in guys before. He simply hadn't cared for the male body. Then again, it wasn't Lloyd's body that had attracted Zelos, but rather who Lloyd _was _. . .

It was ten thousand kinds of confusing, and Zelos wished that he had something beautiful and expensive to break.

But he didn't, and so he settled for throwing off his blanket instead, and carefully standing up. A glance to Lloyd and Colette told him that they were both still sleeping, and though he didn't want to go far, he knew that he needed to take a walk. Waving to Noishe to make sure that their guard stayed near their camp, Zelos headed off toward forested area, figuring that the trees might help him think.

He didn't know why he thought that. He was a city man. Lloyd was the forest boy.

Argh, Lloyd. Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd! Why did his thoughts always loop back to Lloyd nowadays? Well, Lloyd or Colette. He was either thinking about how Lloyd would react to this, or how Colette would respond to that. It wasn't so bad when they were all still on the Journey of World Restoration, because during that time the others (Sheena especially) were around. They provided a nice balance to the group, and an excellent distraction. But since the three of them started traveling together more than a year ago, they started to influence his behavior (even more than they had previously) and eclipse his thoughts. He thought about Sheena less and less these days, a thought that made him feel somewhat guilty, and as the days went on, any couple-y moments that the two shared made an angry twist of jealousy writhe in his stomach, though he did his best to pretend it didn't exist.

Especially since he could never tell which one he was jealous of.

Zelos stopped walking so that he could lean against a tree, and let his head thump the wood behind his back. It accomplished nothing other than giving him a slight sore spot on the back of his head. He wasn't jealous of either of them. He _wasn't_. If he was, then that meant that he was in love with one of them—or both of them, but how did that work? Zelos always portrayed himself as a free spirit that was a huge fan of all things love, but the truth was that he didn't understand it very well. He lacked experience. He knew all about lust, and he knew all about trashy romance novels and cheesy plays put on in Altamira (Seles was a huge fan of stage dramas), but actual love was not his ball park. Still, from the way he understood it, people typically only fell in love with one person, and he loved Colette.

Sheena. He loved _Sheena_, even if he wasn't sure of that yet, given how on-and-off their relationship was, and that he hadn't seen her since the last season. She was busy, after all, being the Chief of Mizuho, and he had this Exsphere journey with Lloyd and Colette. Granted, the three of them often forgot about Exspheres as they traveled, seeing parts of the world they weren't even sure existed before they stumbled upon them. Despite his current confusion and frustration, Zelos couldn't help but laugh a little as he remembered Lloyd's joy at finding a deserted island out in the ocean. His eyes, which were always such a rich shade of brown, were so wide and bright, and his smile had been particularly infectious, to the point where not even Zelos could see any downside to the hunk of land they'd discovered. Seeing Lloyd like that, Zelos couldn't help but feel—

He froze, and tried to derail his thoughts.

It was insane. Pure insanity. He could accept being in love with Colette (even though he couldn't be, because Lloyd and Colette loved each other, and Zelos himself loved Sheena—really, he did), but with Lloyd? Lloyd was his best friend. There was no doubt about that, but there was a huge difference between being best friends with someone, and being in love with them, and Zelos _was not _in love with Lloyd. He _wasn't_.

When he went back to the campsite, he tossed a few sticks onto the dying fire. The sound roused both Lloyd and Colette, though while Colette merely smiled sleepily at him and snuggled back down into her sleeping bag, Lloyd blinked sleep-ridden brown eyes at him and asked, "Zelos? Why're you still up? 's somethin' wrong?"

"Nah. Can't sleep." Zelos shrugged, and tried to give a carefree grin, but his throat felt dry in the face of Lloyd's concern. While Zelos couldn't manage a smile, though, Lloyd could.

"'ll right. Try to sleep soon, though, okay? Gotta get some rest for t'morrow." Lloyd dropped back down amongst his own blankets, already falling back asleep, but Zelos nodded anyway, his heart beating unevenly in his chest.

"Yeah, bud," he croaked. "I'll try."

He wasn't going to sleep a wink, though, and as far as his feelings went, the only person he was fooling (albeit with an increasing lack of success) was himself.

–

_Wind –_

Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos had an important mission. They were supposed to locate Exspheres and dispose of them, to make sure that there would never again be a victim of their parasitism. Although this very important journey _should _have consumed their every waking moment, sometimes . . . sometimes it _didn't._

It wasn't abnormal for the trio to get distracted, whether it was distraction in a new place, or distraction somewhere familiar. This time they were in Asgard, a city famed for its constant wind storms, and while they fully intended to check out the ruins underneath the Asgard dais to look for Exspheres there, they were currently having far too much fun on _top _of the dais.

Colette, for instance, couldn't stop laughing. The wind was strong enough to almost blow her over, and she used its strength to spin around, almost dancing on top of the stone. It was still very early spring, and so the wind had a cold bite to it, but although the cold temperature tinted her cheeks pink, she didn't seem to mind. In fact, one could almost say that she was excited to have a chance to wear a blue coat and a long, multi-colored knitted scarf, which whipped around her as she spun, her blonde hair—tied in two braids—spinning with it.

Zelos, too, was dressed for the occasion. Colette's gloves were red and fingerless, but Zelos had black gloves that covered his hands entirely, and a long, dark grey coat with a blue scarf tucked into it. As Colette spun around and was almost blown over by the wind, Zelos reached out to catch her hand, steadying her and meeting her bright smile with one of his own.

And seeing as how his red coat needed washing, Lloyd was wearing a black coat made of leather, though he at least had a red jumper on underneath it. The wind wasn't strong enough to shove him around as it was Colette, but she still reached out to quickly link their arms together, and as she pulled him over, he stumbled.

"Easy, Colette!" he said, but there was laughter in his voice, even as he fought to make himself heard over the howling wind. "Sometimes I forget how strong you are." Colette was still laughing, even as she shifted her other arm to link through Zelos', instead of holding his hand.

"Sorry, Lloyd. Sometimes I forget how strong I am, too." The wind pushed her again, causing her to stumble forward a bit, and it was only by virtue of Zelos and Lloyd's added weight that she didn't topple over completely. "The wind is so strong up here! It's even stronger than I remember it."

"It is an especially windy day," Zelos agreed. Colette pulled free from between them and spun around with the wind again, despite the fact that it continued to whip her rainbow scarf into a frenzy around her. "Careful, my sweet little angel. You wouldn't want to be blown right off this dais."

"Don't worry, Zelos. I won't be. And even if I was, I could just fly." She paused, and then looked over at both of them with an excited grin. "Hey! We can fly! We should fly!"

Zelos and Lloyd exchanged glances, and Lloyd looked back over at Colette with a raised eyebrow. "Uh . . . Colette, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Sure it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

"The wind's already blowing you all over the place as it is. Don'tcha think it'll be even worse if you don't have solid ground beneath you?" Zelos asked, picking up in Lloyd's stead. Colette seemed to consider this for a moment before her shimmering pink and purple wings burst from her back.

"Maybe, but I still want to try. Come on!" She lifted off the ground a few inches, and as predicted, the wind easily tugged her around in a circle. Far from being afraid, she just laughed more. "It's fun—really fun! Come join me!"

Neither Lloyd nor Zelos used their wings as frequently as Colette did. Lloyd, in fact, had only used his once, and that was when he chased after the Great Seed to force it to sprout into the mana tree. With Colette smiling at them like that, though, neither of them could say no. Before they'd even fully realized the decision they made, both of them drew their wings—Zelos' orange-gold ones, and Lloyd's oversized green and blue—and were swept into the air to join her.

The thing about Seraphim wings—for really, that's what the mana wings were—was that they were more for show than anything else. When it came to flying, they didn't need to flap in order for the angel in question to gain altitude. Flying, along with angel spells, simply happened when the angel thought about it. As Colette once told Zelos when he remarked upon it in wonder, it was like a switch being turned on in the brain. It simply happened. And so, although Lloyd and Zelos put no effort at all into flying, they were able to easily join Colette in the air, all three of them joining hands.

"Don't let go! Who knows how far this wind will blow you if you do, and we can't lose each other!" Though Lloyd meant his warning to be serious, the free-spin the wind was throwing them into was causing him to grin, his eyes bright with excitement. Zelos looked over to him.

"Ooh, careful, bud. Say stuff like that, and I might fall in love." Lloyd returned his glance.

"So? That wouldn't be a problem for me!"

"Don't worry Lloyd!" Colette jumped in before Zelos could find a response, though she could hardly speak for her own giggles. "We won't let go! We have to stick together—right, Zelos?"

"Right you are, Colette." Zelos' answer was quick, but sincere, and he squeezed both Lloyd and Colette's hands gently. Both of them returned the gesture, even as the wind storm catapulted them over Asgard.

–

_Order –_

It wasn't too often that they visited Meltokio. True, there was business to be had there, Exsphere-wise—the removal of Exspheres from the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge was slow-going, and the Royal Family had complete control over that process—but it was quietly decided that taking things slow with Meltokio would be the way to go. Zelos still had a lot of sway and power, even if the Chosen One system had been abolished, but he knew better than anyone that trying to force things through in Meltokio politics was only likely to start a fight. Thus, the three of them mostly steered clear of Meltokio, instead taking their search and travels elsewhere, only stopping in every now and then, whenever Zelos had to check in to see how things were going.

It was for this reason that they didn't really see the Meltokian nobility much, especially since Zelos always made sure their trips through the noble quarter were very quick. As soon as they entered the noble quarter, they either went straight to his mansion, or straight back to the commercial districts—no other stops. Lloyd was mostly glad for this, because he had no desire to be caught up in the swarm of women that tried to flock to Zelos, but Colette always wondered why it was. She knew, of course, that women liked to fawn over Zelos and hang over his every move, but the noble districts were still pretty, and besides, Pudding lived there, and he was one of her favorite dogs. (Well, all dogs were her favorite, but she still enjoyed visiting with Pudding every now and then.)

But even if Zelos always tried to steer them quickly toward his mansion, there were times when he still couldn't escape the swarm of noblewomen that approached whenever they caught sight of him. Today was one such day, when—even though Zelos' mansion was in sight—the noblewomen let out gasps and high-pitched squeals of delight before picking up their skirts and hurrying over.

"Master Zelos!"  
"Oh, it's Master Zelos!"  
"Master Zelos, it has been so long!"

Zelos turned away from Lloyd and Colette, and positioned himself so that he was almost standing in-between them and the noblewomen. Not that it mattered; about nine or ten noblewomen came over, moving like a swarm of gluttonous insects, and they easily surrounded Zelos and pushed Lloyd and Colette out of the way. Lloyd reached out to catch Colette by her shoulder, steadying her so that she wasn't pushed to the ground, and he scowled as Zelos turned to the noblewomen with a placating, charming smile. For some reason, the entire scene bothered him. It wasn't just that Colette was rudely pushed, almost to the ground (though that was certainly part of it), but seeing Zelos surrounded by those noblewomen—noblewomen that didn't even care about him in the least bit—bothered him. Why did Zelos indulge them like that? They were fawning over him, draping themselves over him, but Zelos didn't really care about them. Lloyd knew that he didn't.

Right?

"Now, now, my hunnies, settle down." Zelos raised both hands to try and calm the women, stepping lightly back so that there was a little bit of distance between him and them, even as they tried to form a ring around them. The noblewomen, at the very least, kept their distance (and that was the only thing that kept Lloyd from interfering—because really, they didn't need to suffocate Zelos in a mob or anything), but they continued to lean forward, hungry looks in their eyes. "It hasn't been that long, has it?"

"It's been _ages_!" one of the noblewomen cried, and she hid her blushing face behind a paper fan. Lloyd rolled his eyes, shifting his weight, and Colette took his hand in her own. "You've been gone for so long, Master Zelos! I felt like I was going to _die_."

"Me, too!" another chimed in. "Master Zelos, I also felt like I was going to die! I need you, Master Zelos!"

"So do I!"

"We all do!"

"And where would I be if all of you lovely ladies died, hmm?" Zelos gave them another charming smile, and the women acted as though they'd swoon and faint on the spot. Lloyd wished they would, though he didn't know where such a mean thought came from. "Really, I'd be so sad if any of you gorgeous hunnies passed away, especially since there's more than enough of my love to go around to each of you." More gasps and giggles erupted from the women, but tapered off as Zelos continued, "But unfortunately, as much as it pains my heart to say this, we'll have to save it for a later date. Right now, I have other, important matters to tend to."

"What?"  
"Nooo!"  
"Master Zelos, it can't be!"

The protests, though pained, made Lloyd grin a little, though—given that he didn't really fully understand _why _someone else's disappointment made him happy, and because it made him feel bad to think that way—he choked it back. Zelos opened his mouth to say something else, but a noblewoman in a pink dress stepped forward, causing Zelos to take a tiny step back.

"Master Zelos, what do you have to do that we can't help with? We'd _love _to do anything we can to help you. And we'd surely be better at it than some . . . others." Her eyes flickered over to where Lloyd and Colette were standing, and although Lloyd had been busy enjoying Zelos' rejection of the women up until that moment, he caught the glance and it pulled him up short. He felt Colette grip his hand just a little tighter—in pain or warning, he wasn't sure.

"Others?" Zelos' voice was polite, but Lloyd knew Zelos well enough by this point to note underlying tone there regardless. It was the same tone he used whenever he was leading a conversation.

"You know . . . _them_." A girl with dark blue hair spoke up, now, and though she hid the lower half of her face with a fan, her eyes glanced over to Lloyd and Colette, and she inclined her head slightly. Zelos glanced over at Lloyd and Colette as well, but the action was so brief that only Colette caught it. "Such . . . _lower-class people_."

"It could be worse. They could be half-elves, but _still_, Master Zelos." It was the blonde in the pink dress again, and she leaned closer. Her voice was a stage-whisper, but Lloyd and Colette—with their sharpened hearing—could still catch every word. "You could do so much better than backwater, Sylvaranti trash. Let us treat you better."

Lloyd opened his mouth to retort, and made to angrily move forward, but in addition to Colette squeezing his hand tightly and pulling him back, Zelos shifted so that he was standing fully in-between Lloyd, Colette, and the noblewomen. Lloyd felt another flash of anger, though it was quickly drowned out by a stronger tide of hurt. Was Zelos really going to let them say that? Of course, it didn't really matter what any Tethe'allan noblewomen thought—Lloyd knew that he shouldn't let things like that get to him—but the fact that Zelos could so easily gloss over it, could still continue to flirt with them . . . Lloyd wouldn't have expected it. He knew Zelos better than that, and Zelos wouldn't . . . he couldn't . . .

"Now, don't you think you're being a little presumptuous?" Lloyd blinked, thinking for a half-second that Zelos had heard his thoughts, but found that Zelos was speaking to the noblewomen instead. "Not to mention the fact that you're completely underestimating me. The Great Zelos Wilder is surely intelligent enough to know who he should and should not spend his time with, don't you think?"

"I—I-of course!" The noblewoman backpedaled quickly, and the other women stepped back, as if not wanting to be associated with her, despite the fact that they'd all clearly shared the same opinion. "I—I only meant—"

"I know what you meant," Zelos interrupted, and though his voice was still level, it carried a little bit of chill. "You meant to imply that my companions are worth less than the dirt you trample beneath your pretty little shoes because of where they're born, even though you don't know a thing about them. You presumed, because they were from an impoverished world, that they're somehow not worthy of being in my presence. Is that it?"

"I—well—"

"The truth is, my darling, that the two of them are worth more than all of you combined." The noblewomen gasped, and Lloyd's eyes widened. "They're both certainly far too good for me, in any way you care to name. So for you to say what you did—well, it's not only horribly offensive, but it's also pretty inaccurate."

"Master Zel—"

"But, you're right. As the Chosen, I should take it upon myself to clean the streets of trash every now and again." Zelos put his hands in his pockets, and the smile he gave the noblewomen was far less charming, and far more condescending. "So, that being said—go ahead and clear out of here, all of you. I don't particularly care where you go, as long as you're careful to stay out of sight of my mansion."

Silence reigned for a moment before the noblewoman with blue hair asked, "U-Us?" Her voice was filled with nothing but shock, and Lloyd could empathize with her for that reason. "You're—you're asking _us _to leave?"

"No." Before anyone could say anything else, Zelos added, "I'm _telling _you to leave. By order of the Chosen, stay off this block for at _least\ _the next seventy-two hours. I don't want to see you back, understand?" The noblewomen, Lloyd, and Colette continued to stare at Zelos in shock for a minute before he raised one hand, and waved it in the direction of the noblewomen. "Adios. Vamoose. Et cetera."

At that, the noblewomen finally cleared off. Some of them were in tears, others were furiously talking amongst themselves about how Zelos could do this, about how Lloyd and Colette weren't worth it, about how just _wait _until Princess Hilda heard about _this_, because there was _no way _she'd stand for it—but all of that was easily tuned out by Lloyd and Colette. Lloyd was staring at Zelos, too shell-shocked to move for a moment, but Colette released Lloyd's hand and jumped forward to grab Zelos', instead. Zelos started, as though he was going to pull his hand away, but then he relaxed.

"Oh, Zelos—you didn't have to say all that! I know they're going to be mad at you, and I'm sorry—if we weren't here, they wouldn't have said those things—"

"Colette, you have nothing to be sorry for. It's not your fault they're a bunch of stuck-up, pretentious, racist, shallow cows. Believe me, I'm not missing out on anything by telling them to scat. So don't even start to feel bad, okay?" He raised his other hand to lightly brush Colette's cheek, and they exchanged smiles. "There we go. You're already beautiful, but your smile makes you look radiant."

"Really, Zelos?" This came from Lloyd, who finally got his brain to work as Zelos started flirting with Colette. It didn't bother him—not in the least bit, not like Zelos flirting with the noblewomen did—but it was so traditionally _Zelos _that it broke Lloyd from his surprised stupor. Zelos looked up at Lloyd with a grin.

"What, you don't think so, bud?" Zelos looked down at Colette, who was already giggling. "Hear that, Colette? Lloyd doesn't think you're pretty."

"That's not what I said!" Despite his raised voice, Lloyd felt more amused than angry. Zelos tossed him a grin.

"I know, I know. You were just jealous. Don't worry, though, bud; I think you're pretty, too."

"Oh, whatever." Lloyd rolled his eyes, and walked around so that he could walk past Zelos, but as he did so, Zelos slung an arm around Lloyd's shoulders. Colette shifted her hold so that she was hugging Zelos' arm instead of holding his hand, and Lloyd – because Zelos was too tall for him to throw an arm around Zelos' neck – settled for putting his arm around Zelos' waist instead. "Like you really think that, anyway."

"Don't be like that. I totally meant what I said. You're the best looking guy here." Zelos paused a moment, and then added quickly, "Besides me, of course."

"You would say that, Zelos."

"'Course I would."

"Well, I think we're all beautiful," Colette said, and both Zelos and Lloyd grinned. Zelos lightly tugged his arm out of her hold so that he could put it around her shoulders, instead, and she – like Lloyd – put an arm around Zelos' waist. "Especially when we're together. You guys think so, too, right?"

"Damn straight," Zelos said, at the same time Lloyd said, "You bet! Wouldn't have it any other way." Colette beamed.

"Me, neither."

–

_Thanks –_

In late autumn, the leaves of Iselia Forest turned all different shades and hues of orange, red, gold, and brown. The ground was covered in leaves that crunched under their feet, and Noishe especially seemed to enjoy charging forward, kicking up a funnel of multi-colored leaves around him. There were no Exspheres in Iselia Forest, but when they were in the area it was nice to check in, especially given how beautiful the surrounding area was. The second the multi-colored trees came into view, Colette's face lit up in joy, and for Lloyd and Zelos, that was reason enough to justify a short break.

At the moment, they were laying out in the yard, Dirk inside the house working on a new commission. Dirk usually kept the leaves raked up off the grass, but at the moment they were strewn everywhere—mostly because Lloyd had raked them into a large pile, which he and Colette had promptly jumped into. Zelos had never been one to play in the leaves—growing up in Meltokio never gave him the opportunity—but although he usually wasn't one to want to lay down in the dirt, he obliged Lloyd and Colette by laying down with them. Colette lay in-between them as they stared up at the sky, and after a moment, she took their hands in her own.

"Thanks."

"Huh?" Lloyd was the one who spoke, turning his head to look at her, but Zelos looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, too. "What's that about, all of a sudden?"

"Nothing." Colette was smiling, and she let out a contended little sigh. "Just . . . thanks. For everything. You know, for just . . . being here with me."

It was so _Colette _that Zelos just half-grinned and looked back up at the sky, but Lloyd laughed a little and said, "You dork. You don't have to thank us for being here. We want to be. Right, Zelos?"

"You got it." Zelos nudged Colette with his shoulders. "Besides, if anyone should be doing the thanking for that, it's me. You're the only reason I was allowed to come on this journey in the first place, sweet little angel. Lloyd didn't want me to come, remember?"

"That's not true!" Lloyd protested, but after a moment of silence (Zelos raised his eyebrow, but doubted Lloyd could see), he consented, "Well . . . yeah, but that was only because you were being annoying about it. I didn't really not want you to come."

"Yeah, but," Zelos mocked, but not unkindly. He was still smiling, if only faintly, and he let out a little sigh of his own. "Still, thanks for letting me tag along. Wouldn't trade it for the world."

"You're not tagging along. You're just as much a part of this as the two of us. And I'm glad you're here, Zelos." Zelos' heart thudded a bit erratically in his chest, skipping at an accelerated rhythm at Lloyd's words, and Colette turned her head to snuggle a little against his shoulder.

"Me, too," she said, and Zelos didn't dare say a word, or even move, but he could have sworn she pressed her lips against his shoulder. If Lloyd noticed, he didn't say anything about it. Instead:

"But if we're going to be thanking each other for stuff, I probably should thank you guys, too."

"For what?" Colette sounded genuinely curious, and Zelos—his curiosity piqued as well—turned his head to look over at Lloyd. Lloyd was still staring up at the sky.

"Well, you know. You guys always believed in me. Even when I didn't really believe in myself, you were there. And you helped me out with everything before, too. With Mithos and reuniting the worlds . . . and with Kratos, too." Zelos did his best not to squeeze Colette's hand tighter, but just hearing Lloyd mention Kratos irritated him. "Even now, you guys are helping me find Exspheres, even though you don't have to. So . . . thanks, for all that."

"We don't have to, but we want to." Just as she had with Zelos, Colette turned toward Lloyd and pressed her lips against his shoulder. "It's a really important journey, and you're really important, too. Plus, being together . . . it's the best thing in the world."

"Yeah. I think so, too." Zelos could hear the smile in Lloyd's voice, especially as he said, "We'll always have each other, no matter what."

"No matter what," Colette agreed, and—feeling as though they were waiting for his input—Zelos chimed in, "No matter what," just loud enough for both of them to hear.


	3. Cycle Two (Part Two) and Cycle Three

**Cycle Two (part two)**

_Look –_

Sometimes, it was hard not to look.

Colette, despite being a girl, wasn't the most skilled at doing her hair. She could brush it, and maybe even tie it back in a messy ponytail, but that was about it. For that reason, on a day when she decided she wanted to wear her hair in two braids, Zelos was the one to tie them back for her. That day, they were sitting on their bed at the inn, Colette sitting in front of him while he tied back the first of her two braids, when Lloyd returned from the washroom, shirtless and still dripping. Zelos couldn't help himself; he paused in the braiding to stare at Lloyd, at the way the water dripped down over his toned chest and abs, highlighting his muscles and various scars, and it wasn't until he realized that he was imagining running his hands along that toned body that he cleared his throat and looked back at Colette's hair.

Colette, for her part, didn't even realize that she was staring, and thus kept right on doing it.

Instead of heading to his travel bag, though, Lloyd just walked over to where his swords were propped up against the wall, and plopped down on the floor to begin to sharpen them. Zelos' eyes kept flickering back over to Lloyd, and after the fifth time that his eyes (and mind) wandered, he cleared his throat a little louder and said, "Gonna put on a shirt some time today, bud?"

"Huh?" Lloyd looked up, as if he hadn't even noticed anything abnormal about his behavior, and then shrugged. "Yeah, probably later. It's kinda hot right now, though."

Colette giggled, while Zelos merely rolled his eyes and thought, _Yeah, no kidding._

–

Sometimes, it was hard not to look.

It was no secret that Zelos Wilder was gorgeous. Four thousand years of selective breeding had left Zelos with flawless skin, silky hair, perfect body type and vivid eyes. There was a reason that girls all over the world fawned after him, for while the Meltokio noblewomen might be explained by way of his status, that excuse didn't hold true for the rest of the cities in Tethe'alla—and certainly not the ones in Sylvarant. No, Zelos Wilder was gorgeous, and even when he didn't make an attempt to flaunt it, it was still highly noticeable.

When he _did _make an effort to make himself look good, however, he was breathtaking.

The outfit he'd worn to the dinner party was one thing, all ritz and glam, but there was a lot that could be said for a basic, sharp black suit. The three of them were set to attend a business meeting at Lezareno in order to discuss the excavation of the silver Colette had found in the Toize Valley Mine, and while Lloyd felt awkward in the black suit he'd been loaned, and while Colette kept trying to adjust her blouse and smooth down her skirt, Zelos appeared right at home. His long red hair was combed and tied back in a silver clasp, and the black pants and jacket fit snugly without looking too tight, fitting over his shoulders and legs in just such a way that they accentuated his muscles. As he walked into the waiting room to sit with them, he gave his black tie another adjustment, fixing the collar of his white shirt thereafter.

Lloyd was staring. He couldn't help it.

"Like what you see, bud?" Zelos asked cheekily, noticing Lloyd's gaze. Lloyd grinned, and was teasing before he could help it.

"You actually look like a responsible adult for once, Zelos."

"Hah! You're one to talk." Zelos put his hands into his pant pockets, and Colette—who also seemed to have eyes only for Zelos in that moment—said brightly:

"I think you look really nice, Zelos. You should dress like that more often!"

"I agree." Once again, the words were out of Lloyd's mouth before he could help himself, and Zelos' grin only grew.

"If you two want it, then it's no problem for me."

–

Sometimes, it was hard not to look.

Honestly, it happened completely by accident. Lloyd and Zelos had just gone out to replenish their supplies, and while they knew that Colette had stayed behind to wash up, they had expected her to be fully clothed before entering their shared inn room again. Thus, when they entered the room to find her quite clothes-less, the three of them stared for a moment before Lloyd grabbed Zelos by the arm and quickly yanked him out of the room, shouting a quick, "Sorry!" before he shut the door behind them. A minute later the door opened, and though Colette had a towel in front of her now (something she'd grabbed to shield herself when the door opened), she was looking at them genuinely.

"Guys, it's okay! I'm getting dressed now. I just thought you guys were strangers. I didn't mean to scream. I'm sorry."

"It's—It's okay," Lloyd said, though he was still red in the face, his voice a little higher pitched. "Just—get dressed, okay?"

"Okay," Colette agreed, and she smiled as she opened the door up. "Do you guys want to come in?"

"You realize you're not dressed yet, right?" Zelos asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Not that I mind looking, but—" Lloyd punched Zelos in the arm, and Zelos glared at him, rubbing the sore spot. Colette giggled.

"Yes, I know. But it won't take me long to get dressed, and if it's you guys, it's okay. I don't mind." Colette stepped back and opened the door wider, to allow them entrance. They didn't move. "Really! If you guys were strangers I'd mind, but if it's you, it's okay."

Lloyd and Zelos glanced at each other before they entered the room, but although Lloyd's face ended up turning the color of his coat and even though Zelos tried to hide it, neither of them could stop from stealing glances as Colette changed into a fresh pair of clothes.

–

_Summer –_

"Ahhh. With hot springs like these, you'd never guess that it's the dead of winter."

Zelos sank a little lower into the water, relishing in the feeling of the heat soaking into his skin. Due to their travels, he'd missed going to the hot springs the previous winter, and while he wouldn't trade his time with Lloyd and Colette for all the hot springs in the universe, he had to admit that it was nice to finally have a touch of summer in the midst of an otherwise dismal winter. Besides, Lloyd and Colette—both sitting in the same spring as he was, because Colette didn't want to sit in one by _herself _no matter what anyone else thought—didn't seem to mind.

"The hot springs always feel so nice. It makes it hard to want to get out again." Colette leaned her head back, soaking her long, golden hair in the water, before she lifted one hand up to inspect her fingers. "Although, your skin does get kinda wrinkly after awhile."

"Yeah, but it's cool when that happens! Me and Genis used to always play in the Iselia Forest's stream until our skin got super wrinkly. We used to see who could wrinkle up the most." Lloyd was grinning, even as he inspected his own fingers, poking at each individual wrinkle. "I always won."

"That's not something to be proud of, bud." Like the others, Zelos glanced at his hands, but he couldn't bring himself to feel too fussed. The water felt too nice to want to get out, especially with present company. "You don't want to turn into an old man before your time, do you?"

"Chyeah, like that could happen." Lloyd paused for a moment, putting his arms behind his head as he leaned back against the side of the spring, before he looked over at Zelos with a sly grin. "Besides, you've been coming here every winter since you were a kid, right? You'd wrinkle up faster than I ever could." Zelos gave Lloyd a sideways glance.

"That's not how it works, bud."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I wonder what would happen if someone stayed in the water forever?" Colette wondered aloud, breaking the two males out of their argument. Both looked over at her, but she was staring up at the sky. "What if you just stayed in the water for ages and ages? Maybe eventually you'd shrivel up and turn into a gigantic prune."

"A gigantic prune?" Lloyd asked, blinking. Zelos opened his mouth to say something, but Colette smiled and continued.

"Yup! A giant prune. But you'd still know who you were, and everything that went on around you. You just couldn't do anything about it." Colette looked back at Lloyd and Zelos with a determined expression, her hands balled into fists in front of her. "You'd end up stuck there in the water, forever, watching people go by. Maybe some people would notice you, but others wouldn't. And you'd want to say something, or—or maybe even get out of the water, but you couldn't. Or . . . maybe the water would feel so nice that you'd want to stay, but it really wouldn't matter if you did or not, since you'd be a prune and you couldn't move." Colette looked back down at the water. Her smile was gone, and both Zelos and Lloyd were positive that she was thinking of something else entirely. "Maybe it would be like that, if you stayed in the water and turned into a giant prune."

Zelos and Lloyd glanced to each other before they both moved around the hot spring to sit on either side of her. Lloyd put his hand on Colette's shoulder, and Zelos put one on the top of her head, causing her to look up at both of them in turn.

"I don't think you have to worry about turning into a giant prune, Colette," Lloyd said bracingly, and while that assurance alone would have been fine, he followed it up with, "Besides, even if you did, we'd just find a way to change you back. You'd still be you, so we wouldn't abandon you no matter what."

"Yeah. You'll always be beautiful, Colette. No matter what happens to you," Zelos added. Colette smiled at them both.

"Thanks. But I wasn't thinking about me."

"Oh?"

"No. I was thinking about Zelos, since he's spent so much time in here already." Lloyd burst out laughing, and Zelos' eyes widened as Colette looked at him with a playfully worried look. "Zelos, don't turn into a giant prune, okay? Lloyd and I will save you if you do, but we'd feel really guilty for having to leave you here!"

"Oh, like you could ever leave me. The Great Zelos Wilder does not do left behind." He smirked at them, a playful expression that caused them both to grin back. "Like it or not, you're stuck with me."

Lloyd splashed some of the water toward Zelos' face.

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

–

**Cycle Three**

_Transformation –_

For Colette's twentieth birthday, they returned to Iselia. Though she was technically no longer the Chosen, the entire village still got together to celebrate her milestone birthday, decorating the streets with colorful lanterns and flowers. Their friends from all around the world came to visit, too—even Regal, despite the fact that he was always swamped with work from being the president of the Lezareno corporation, and Sheena, even though she was constantly overseeing things in Mizuho.

But although she was the center of the attention at the start of the party, Lloyd noticed that Colette seemed to disappear after a little while. Zelos was busy talking to Sheena, so she wasn't with him, and everyone else seemed to be otherwise occupied, either by talking to another person, or by eating food or dancing to the music. Curious about where she could have gone, Lloyd excused himself from talking to Genis (by distracting Genis with the sight of Presea) and went to look for her. As he thought, she wasn't participating in any of the festivities, and when he checked her house, she wasn't there, either. It wasn't until he ventured out toward the northern exit of the village that he found her, sitting a little ways out from the village itself. Her back was against a tree, her knees drawn up, and she was staring intently into an ornate, circular mirror that she held between her hands. Despite the fact that he didn't try to be quiet as he approached her, she didn't seem to hear him, and so he cleared his throat a little.

"Colette?"

She jumped a little as she heard his voice, clearly startled, and Lloyd frowned, especially as she turned frightened blue eyes on him. He knew that he didn't scare her, so that meant that something else was bothering her, though he couldn't see what. She looked back down to the mirror for a moment before she looked up again, and gave him his least favorite smile.

Her liar smile.

"O-Oh, Lloyd. I was just, um—well, I just thought I'd take a little break, you know? Everyone seemed to be having a good time—and I am, too! Really, I am. I just wanted to look at this nice birthday present Grandmother gave me, and I didn't want anyone to think I was ignoring them when I did."

"I don't think that anyone would think that, Colette," Lloyd said, and he walked over to sit down next to her. Colette kept her smile mostly up, though it faltered a little as she looked back down at the reflective glass. "So, what's up? And don't lie—you know you can trust me with anything, right?"

"Of course!" Colette's response was quick and bright, but once again, she faltered as she looked back at the mirror she held in her hands. "Of course, Lloyd. I—I—" She chewed on the corner of her bottom lip, clearly warring with herself over whether or not she should spill her guts, but finally, she turned around to face him. "Lloyd, do you think I've changed?"

"What?" Lloyd was taken off-guard. Whatever he had been expecting—and he didn't even know what he'd been expecting—it wasn't that. "What do you mean?"

"I mean—I'm twenty now, right? Twenty-years-old?" Lloyd nodded, and Colette picked up the mirror again, staring at it. "But I haven't—I don't think I look any different than I did when I was sixteen." Lloyd was starting to see where this was headed, now, but he kept his mouth shut as she continued. "I look the same now as I did then, right? And I shouldn't, because that was four whole years ago—and people change a lot in four years, don't they? Just look at Presea and Genis—and even Sheena, too. They've all grown and changed, and I—I haven't."

"W-Well . . ." Lloyd frowned as he stared at her, even as she looked up at him with distress evident in her eyes. He didn't know what to say. She certainly didn't look any different, but then, she was Colette. Colette was Colette. Lloyd wasn't the most observant person in the world, but it didn't help that he never really paid attention to the small details that made up a person. Colette was Colette was Colette; she would always be Colette to him, and aside from changes in her mood, that was all he'd ever notice.

But now that he forced himself to pay attention to those small physical details, he tried to piece together the picture of the girl he saw before him with his memory of how she was four years ago. Obviously, she was wearing different clothes—a nice green spring dress instead of the formal church attire she'd been forced to wear during the Journey of Regeneration. She wore her hair a bit differently, too, tied back in twin braids instead of letting it hang loose. But beyond that, were there any changes? Were there any differences?

Not that he could see, but then, Lloyd didn't know if he was the best person to ask.

"Well, four years isn't that long," he said finally, just for _something _to say, though it didn't seem to help much. Colette stood up, pacing away as she stared into the mirror, and Lloyd stood up as well. "Lots of people don't change that much over four years. Zelos hasn't, and I don't think I have, either."

"But Lloyd, that's just it." Colette turned back to face him, and she shook the mirror a little, as she had a habit of doing to her fists whenever she was trying to convey something important. "We're not—none of us are—Lloyd, I don't think we're . . . I don't think we're . . ."

"What?" Lloyd could feel his heart beating a bit harder, nerves and adrenaline starting to make him feel antsy. "Colette, just tell me what's wrong. What's—"

"Aging." Colette's voice was a whisper, and though Lloyd had never believed the stories of time seeming to slow down in dramatic situations, it almost felt like someone had hit the pause button on that very moment. "Lloyd, I don't think we're aging."

Lloyd stared at her, and his mouth felt suddenly dry. For a moment, he couldn't think of anything to say, before he finally shook his head. "No, that's—that's—"

"We should be, shouldn't we? I thought that we would." Colette was clearly distressed, and she started to speak faster, her voice slowly edging up into hysteria. "Once I could talk again, and feel and eat and sleep, I thought that I'd start aging, too, even though I already had my wings. I thought I was cured. But I haven't changed much in four years, and when you think about Mithos and Yuan and Kratos—" Lloyd felt the same unpleasant jolt in his stomach that he did whenever he heard his biological father's name "-they could eat and sleep, too, couldn't they? And they could feel. Remember how Yuan was injured after Kratos attacked him in Hima? His wound hurt him for ages after that. Mithos, too—Mithos was hurt after he rescued Tabatha. They could feel pain, and we saw them eat. We saw Kratos sleep, too."

"Yeah," Lloyd agreed. "We did, but—"

"So, don't you see?" Colette had been pacing, but she stopped again to look back at him with despairing, imploring eyes. "They could eat, sleep, and feel, but they didn't_age_, Lloyd! They stayed the same ages they were forever, for thousands and thousands of years! They didn't get a single day older!"

"But—"

"And we haven't changed, either! And what if we don't? What if we're immortal now? What if we never grow again?" Colette's lower lip was starting to tremble, though she was very clearly fighting to hold the tears back. "I thought—I never really thought about having a family growing up, because I thought I was going to sacrifice myself to regenerate the world. But when we reunited the two worlds without me having to sacrifice myself, I started to think about . . . about starting a family someday. About having a family of my very own. But, Lloyd, if I have babies, they're going to grow. They're going to grow, and grow, and keep on growing, and they'll grow old." Tears started spilling down Colette's cheeks, her voice wobbling right along with her lower lip. "Lloyd, h-how can I watch my babies grow old if I don't?"

Lloyd couldn't take it. He couldn't think of anything to say to comfort her, but he couldn't stand there and watch her cry, either. Without sparing it another thought, he walked forward and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. She buried her face in his shoulder, still not sobbing, but her sniffles and shaky breaths told him that she couldn't quite stop the tears, either.

"Whoa, what's going on?"

Lloyd looked up to see Zelos striding toward them, having no doubt grown curious about their absences, just as Lloyd had about Colette's. Striding forward, Zelos' blue eyes were on Colette, and his expression shifted into an angry glare.

"What happened? Is there some joker who needs his ass kicked right about now?"

Lloyd couldn't help the small smile that twitched his lips at Zelos' righteous anger, but Colette's crying did a lot to temper it. "No," he said quietly. "Colette . . . Colette's upset because she doesn't think we're aging." Zelos blinked, clearly caught off-guard by the answer.

"What?"

"I can cry," Colette said, though her voice was muffled by Lloyd's shoulder. "And we have our angel senses and our wings. We eat, sleep, and feel, but . . . we're—we're just like Kratos, Yuan, and Mithos. We're the s-same as them."

"I like to think we're better," Zelos muttered, but his expression—resigned and troubled—told Lloyd that he didn't think Colette was far off the mark. As Lloyd studied Zelos' expression, something dawned on him.

"Zelos, did you know about this?"

"What? No!" As Lloyd continued to stare at him, Zelos sighed. "I suspected. But c'mon, I can't have been the only one to think about it. We sleep, sure, but we don't need as much sleep as we should. And like Colette said, our situation pretty much parallels those other guys. We're angels. Immortality's the next logical conclusion."

"I don't want it," Colette mumbled, and she hugged Lloyd tighter. "I don't want to be immortal. I want to be normal. I—I just want to be _normal_."

"Don't we all," Zelos said quietly, and without invitation, he hugged Colette from the other side, making it a sort of awkwardly positioned group hug. "But hey, look at it this way; if we're going to live forever, at least we're going to live forever together."

That seemed to bring Colette's crying up short, and after a moment, she whispered, "Yes . . . at least we'll be together forever."

–

_Tremble –_

With Lloyd and Colette, it was all a matter of betting on which one would make the first move.

Really, it was anyone's guess. One day it seemed like it might be Lloyd, and the next day, Colette. Colette had always been shy in the past, the type to subtly hint at what she wanted rather than outright stating it. Lloyd had been more bold, but he was also more obtuse, at least when it came to matters of the heart. So when people talked about the two of them, and whether either one of them would make a move, no one could ever decide on when or how it would happen.

Eventually, those who put their money on Colette were right.

They were in Iselia Forest when it happened. Zelos was back at Dirk's, washing up, and Lloyd and Colette were sitting on their picnic blanket, simply enjoying the mid-spring weather. Colette couldn't tell anyone what prompted her to do it—couldn't even begin to explain where the rush of subtle boldness came from. But one moment, Lloyd was staring up at the canopy of trees, and the next, she'd picked up a little red fruit between her fingers, and tapped him on the shoulder with her other hand.

"Lloyd . . ."

Lloyd turned to look at her, and opened his mouth to ask what she wanted, when she pressed the little red fruit inside. Before he could chew it, she moved forward, pressing her lips against his and teasing the fruit with her tongue.

A half second of stunned surprise was all it took Lloyd to react. Though it was his first kiss (and hers, too), he kissed her back eagerly, reaching a hand up to cup the back of her head, pressing his lips against hers and using his tongue to knock the fruit back into her mouth. Neither of them really knew what they were doing; they just pressed themselves as closely together as they could, only breaking apart when Colette nearly choked on the little fruit they were playing tongue hockey with. And it was only then that they realized they weren't the only ones at the picnic site anymore, Zelos having returned, Noishe standing right behind him. While Noishe's mouth was open in the semblance of a canine grin, Zelos' smile looked tight and somewhat forced.

"Well, it's about time," he said, but his voice was hearty and the cheer was false. "Congratulations."

"Zelos—" Colette tried, but he interrupted her.

"I'll give you two some privacy. Have fun!" With that, he turned on his heel and started back toward the forest, and Noishe—perhaps thinking that Zelos' suggestion of privacy was a good idea—turned and started after. Colette turned to look at Lloyd, who looked completely flustered and unsure of what to do next, and said in a serious voice:

"Lloyd, I think we need to talk about Zelos."

–

Zelos hadn't really known where he was going. Over the past four years of knowing Lloyd he'd become more familiar with the area, but he wasn't familiar enough with it that he knew a good place to go and sulk when he needed to. Dirk's house was out of the question, and Zelos didn't want to just sit in a random part of the forest, so he ultimately settled upon a little cluster of rocks further downstream. For this reason, he heard Lloyd and Colette approaching before they reached him, and likely would have even if he didn't have advanced hearing due to angel transformation.

"Finished already?" he asked, and his voice still sounded hollow, even to his own ears. "C'mon, bud, that's no way to please a lady. You're going to have to do better than that."

"What are you talking about?" Lloyd asked, and to his credit, he did sound genuinely confused, if only a little. "No, Zelos. We wanna talk to you."

"'Bout what?" Zelos picked up a rock and skipped it across the water. "If it's about traveling with just the two of you now, don't worry about it. I was a tag-along from the beginning, remember?"

"No, that's not it." It was Colette that spoke this time, and she walked around to sit on Zelos' right side, while Lloyd took the left. Zelos scoffed.

"What, then is this the 'don't worry, you're not in the way' talk? If so, no offense, but you can spare me. I don't want to hear it."

"It's not about any of that. Will you just shut up and let us talk?" Lloyd demanded. The sound of true irritation in his voice almost made Zelos laugh, but for some reason, he couldn't even summon the energy to do that. Really, what Zelos wanted to do more than anything was . . . well, even he didn't know. Part of him wanted a strong drink—maybe several strong drinks—but another part of him, the part that had changed during his time with the two on either side of him, knew that wouldn't solve anything and thus wanted to stay far away from it.

"Maybe talking's not such a good idea," Colette said, and for a moment, Zelos thought that she was suggesting that they leave him alone to stew in his bad mood. He didn't know whether that thought made him happy or not. But before he could decide, Colette nudged him to get him to look over at her, and – without asking permission, without giving him prior warning so that he could be prepared for it – she placed her hands on either side of his head and pulled him down into a kiss.

It was mind blowing.

Several reactions were processed at rapid-fire speeds through Zelos' brain. The first reaction was an urge to shove her off, to get away, because he didn't like it when people touched him without his consent. He was always the _toucher_, not the _touchee_. The second reaction, quickly eclipsing the first, was joy—unbridled, euphoric joy at the feel of her soft lips working against his own, the gentle touch of her tongue against his bottom lip, asking for entry in a way that was so like her. And the third reaction, the one that surged forward even after he was kissing her back, was that he should _not _be kissing her, because she had just kissed Lloyd, and Lloyd was _right there watching them._

Zelos pulled away, placing his hands on Colette's shoulders to break the kiss. Colette licked her lips as she sat back from him, watching, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. Zelos' heart was beating hard and fast.

"Whoa there, angel hunny. Slow down. You—you can't—what are you kissing me for? You were just kissing him a little while ago." He jerked his thumb back at Lloyd. "You can't—that's called cheating, Colette."

"It's not cheating. It's okay. It's actually what we came to talk to you about," Lloyd said. Zelos turned to look over at him, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Really. What, are you suggesting we share her, or something? Not sure I'm kosher with that idea, bud."

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "No one's talking about sharing anybody. That's just weird."

"Then what are you—"

Evidently, Lloyd also thought that talking wasn't a good idea, since instead of answering Zelos' question—or even allowing him to finish it, for that matter—he followed Colette's idea and shut Zelos up with a kiss.

Instead of being sudden but gentle, like Colette, Lloyd simply grabbed the lapels of Zelos' shirt and crushed his lips against Zelos' own. Like with Colette, however, Zelos' brain rapidly cycled through various shocked reactions; pure surprise, pure joy, and pure panic. Even as he started to kiss Lloyd back, sweeping his tongue inside of Lloyd's mouth and smiling as Lloyd's tongue batted his own back, his brain was screaming at him that he couldn't do this, that he couldn't have it, and that he had to knock it off.

It was that which caused him to break the kiss, pushing Lloyd back and stumbling up to his feet. Lloyd and Colette followed suit, both watching him—Lloyd expectantly, and Colette carefully. Zelos wiped his mouth across his arm and shook his head, fighting to regain control of the situation, and put his thoughts in order.

"No—no. We—no. We can't do this. No."

"Why not?" Lloyd demanded, and he folded his arms. "What's wrong with kissing?"

"Nothing's wrong with kissing," Zelos spat, and he couldn't help that his tone was sardonic. He always became edgier when the ball wasn't in his court. "Kissing's fine, I just—I can't kiss _you_."

"Why not? What's wrong with me?" Now Lloyd sounded offended, and Zelos rolled his eyes, tossing his hands into the air.

"Nothing's wrong with you! You're fine, you're great—you're perfect, but I just—I don't _do _guys, Lloyd. You know this."

"Why not?" Zelos was starting to get tired of the repeated question, to the point where he almost considered asking if Dirk had to put up with this incessantly when Lloyd was a child. "Who cares if I'm a guy or not? You're a guy, too. Doesn't mean we can't love each other."

"I—it's just—It's never been who I am, y'know?" Lloyd didn't seem to know, if the stare he was giving Zelos was anything to go by, and so Zelos turned to Colette. "And you—you're . . . Colette. I can't—I can't do those sorts of things with you. Especially since you've always meant to be with him." He gestured to Lloyd, and Colette nodded.

"It's true. Lloyd has been my Special Someone for a long time." Zelos thought that perhaps she finally saw sense, and was simultaneously relieved and disappointed, before she followed it up with, "But you're my Special Someone too, Zelos."

"How does that work? You can't have two 'Special Someones'."

"I think you can, because I do."

Zelos pinched the bridge of his nose, but rather than trying to ward _off _a headache, he rather wanted to bring one _on_, to distract him from the rave his heart was throwing inside of his chest. "Okay, look," he tried. "I don't know what you two are thinking. I know you're both new to this whole romance shindig, but this—this isn't how it works. You meet someone, you decide you like 'em, you decide you love 'em, and then you hook up or whatever. Relationships are a two person thing. You ever heard the saying that three's a crowd?"

"Nope," Lloyd said, and Colette shook her head. Zelos resisted the urge to groan. "And I know a lot of sayings. 108 of them, in fact. Dwarven Vows. I think most of them would actually be in favor of this."

"And what _is _this, exactly?" Zelos hated the fact that he sounded so hostile, especially when it came to them, but he couldn't help it. He was—for one of the few times in his life—legitimately scared. Terrified, even, though he was loathe to admit it, and when he was scared, the anger came out. "Some kind of suggestion for a threesome? 'Cause bud, I'm sorry, but I don't think either of you want your first time to be a threesome."

"Well, then you don't know us as well as we all thought you did." It was Colette that spoke, shocking Zelos, and his shock gave her more room to talk. "But we're not talking just about sex, Zelos. We're talking about a relationship. _Our _relationship. The three of us."

"Relationships are hard enough with just two people," Zelos said, and he sounded calmer now, though his heart was still having palpitations. He thought it was rather like how a drowning person stops flailing after a certain amount of time. "You really wanna throw a third into the mix? That's way too complicated."

"The only one making this complicated is you," Lloyd said flatly. "Look, Zelos. We love you. Me and Colette, we're completely in love with you, just like we're in love with each other." Colette nodded her head in affirmation of Lloyd's statements, her hands clasped behind her back. Zelos' throat felt choked. "So think hard before you answer this, okay? I'm trusting you to answer honestly."

_Trust_was always the magic word when it came to Zelos, and so he nodded, though he could barely manage an, "Okay," in response. Lloyd and Colette were both staring at him.

"Do you love us, too?"

Did he? Zelos stared at them, taking in every aspect of them. The passion in Lloyd's eyes, the innocent wisdom in Colette's blue, the trust inherent in both of them. On a purely physical level, they were both attractive, even if Colette had the chest of an ironing board. But it was about more than that—_they _were about more than that.

They were the first people Zelos had ever been able to fully trust, and open up to. Colette had a warm hug when he needed one most, and knew just what to say because she knew just what he was feeling. Even now, years after being a Chosen was an issue, she still could always pinpoint what he was feeling, without him having to explain all the way. And she knew, without having to stumble around for the right answer, just what to say to make him feel all right again.

And Lloyd—Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd. Lloyd made him _believe_. Not only did Lloyd give Zelos someone to believe in simply by existing, but he made Zelos believe in _himself_, and that was no small feat. Lloyd inspired Zelos in ways no one else could. If Colette was a spot of sunshine on otherwise dismal days, Lloyd was a candle burning bright in an otherwise endless, dark abyss. Before them, there weren't any bright spots to his life at all. There was nothing to look forward to, no reason to keep living. With them around, Zelos could list off a thousand reasons, and the list would always begin and end with their names.

When he thought about what he wanted, somehow the answer always looped back to them, too. He wanted to hold them, kiss them, _be _with them. The thought of permanently abandoning his duties in Meltokio to gallivant around the world with them until the end of forever became more appealing by the day. He knew that he couldn't—there were societal standards to upkeep, there were things he needed to do, and at twenty-six, the pressure was on for him to settle down and find a wife. His desk back home was practically drowning in marriage proposals. But still, that didn't stop him from pushing those thoughts out of his mind in favor of enjoying the moment—every moment, each and every moment—with Lloyd and Colette. It didn't stop him from imagining a life with them, from thinking that as long as he had them, forever didn't seem too bad—seemed appealing, even. Because at the end of the day, at the end of every day, when it came to those two, Zelos—

"Yeah. I do. I'm crazy about you both. I thought that was obvious by now." Lloyd and Colette had started beaming the second the first word was out of Zelos' mouth, but by the time he got to describing his insanity over them, Colette's eyes were practically shining. "But that doesn't change—"

Once again, he was interrupted with a kiss. Colette had bounded forward, standing up on her tiptoes to press her lips gently against his, throwing her arms around his neck. This time, having finally admitted his own feelings to himself as well as the two of them, Zelos kissed her back, looping his arm around the small of the back draw her closer while doing his best to keep the kiss gentle. He was shaking—he could feel himself shaking, from pure adrenaline—but before he could even think about getting that under control, Colette pulled away and was promptly replaced by Lloyd, who kissed with far more passion, the kissing rough enough to leave them both with slightly sore lips.

When Lloyd pulled back, he took one of Zelos' hands in his own, Colette grasping the other. The two of them joined hands, too, and they turned to kiss each other briefly—and unlike before, when he walked upon them at the picnic site, Zelos didn't feel an ugly twist of jealousy in his stomach. He was still trembling, but the flips in his stomach had very little to do with jealousy, and a whole lot to do with joy. When Lloyd and Colette pulled apart, both of them looked over at him with smiles.

"Dwarven Vow Number Sixteen: you can do anything if you try," Lloyd said. "We can make this work, Zelos. It'll work out, with all three of us."

"Dwarven Vow Number Seven," Colette picked up, and even though Lloyd groaned, it was playful and happy sounding, an exaggeration rather than a genuine expression, "Goodness and _love _will always win. Love always wins, Zelos. And since we all love each other . . ."

"Yeah," Zelos agreed, and he laughed a little incredulously, because there was a part of him—a big part—that just couldn't believe this was happening. He just couldn't believe that something this fantastic was actually happening to _him_. "Yeah—we will. We'll figure it out. Together, right?"

"Together," they agreed, and Zelos pulled them both into a crushing embrace.

* * *

**Notes, References, and Things "Borrowed":**

-I don't imagine Aselia has our calendar system, and thus their years/days aren't charted in months. Thus, each year is a cycle of the seasons. Hence, cycle one is the first year they were together, cycle two is the second, and so on and so forth.

-Inspiration for "Accusation" was taken from a running gag in _Doctor Who_, in which every time Captain Jack Harkness introduces himself, the Doctor interprets it as flirting and tells him to knock it off.

-In-game, Colette likes to add fruit to every single recipe. It's true. The "bananas are good" thing is a reference to Doctor Who.

-If they can have magitek computer systems in the human ranches, they can have janky old record players.

-I can't hear the word "companion" without thinking of Doctor Who nowadays. And in Doctor Who, they always have an awful lot of running to do.

-"Manbearpig" is a reference to what my friend Andy and I call the eggbear in Tales of Vesperia (eggbears appear in other Tales games, too, so whether or not they appear in Symphonia, I felt legit about including them). That in turn is a reference to the manbearpig in South Park, though I assure you, I was referencing the in-joke between Andy and myself.

-Lloyd not understanding the "pot calling the kettle black" metaphor is a joke I've used before. I figured it's been long enough to use it again.

-"Well, exCUse me, Oh Great Chosen One-" is a play on "well, excuuuuse me, princess!" from the awful Legend of Zelda cartoon.

-The idea of Lloyd insisting that he's "borrowing" things when in actuality he's stealing them is an idea I've used for a long time. It's not my fault he commits Grand Theft Rheaird with no remorse.

-Zelos using a fake ID to get them into that random village I made up (Aselia has to be bigger than what we see in game) was actually inspired by Supernatural, rather than Doctor Who, though the psychic paper in Doctor Who works on a similar principle.

-Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos were described wearing outfits of Doctor Who characters in "Wind." Specifically, Lloyd was decked out to look like the Ninth Doctor, Colette was dressed to look like Rose Tyler in the episode "Boom Town," and Zelos was dressed to look like Captain Jack Harkness, in a combination of his military coat and the scarf he had in "Boom Town." This was because I want to see a picture with them in those clothes, but I can't draw it, so I had to do the next best thing.

-Zelos' "I can't be in love with my best friend I've never even had a crush on someone of my same sex before what is this how is this it's fine if others are but I don't know how to deal with this when it's me" crisis is based on personal experience. As in, it took me awhile to come to terms with my orientations/feelings, even though I was already perfectly OK with everyone else being who they were. It happens.

-The "yeah, but" exchange was "borrowed" from The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman.

-I imagine Colette to be both more aware of sexual things than people would expect (as she gets older, anyway), and also perfectly comfortable showing her body to those she trusts. Such things probably went against the teachings of the Church of Martel, but I see Colette as the type to think that since the Goddess is in everyone, the body is thus a very natural and beautiful thing, and so it's OK to show it off. She'd of course not be comfortable with showing her body to strangers (because bad things could happen), but to people she loves and trusts? Sure, why not?

-I firmly believe in the fact that Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos are immortal by the end of the game. I don't care what DotNF says. Both Yuan and Mithos openly show that they can feel pain, and Kratos plainly eats if his negative affection over eating tomatoes are anything to go by, so while they don't seem to need sleep (Kratos takes the night watch a lot), they plainly didn't sacrifice all of their humanity (half-elfanity for Mithos and Yuan?) to become immortal. I mean, they can talk, too. The only things signifying that they're immortal angels are their youthful appearances and wings - and those are things that Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos plainly have by the end of the game. That being said, watching your children and grandchildren grow old while you don't would be painful, and I think that that's probably the legitimate reason Kratos made an excuse to leave at the end of ToS, not realizing that his son was just as immortal as he by that point. Coward.

-The bit with the little red fruit was "borrowed" from the Big Damn Kiss scene in The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman.


End file.
